The forge, which was not a

Photo courtesy, Archives of the City of Montreal, VM4-14-Y-1_24-004A Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin

Centre d’histoire de Montréal

Saturday, 14 October, 2017 18:14

UPDATE
Saturday, 14 October, 2017 18:14

Look at this article

Before the Five Roses

It flashes red every night, as a reassuring signal. The logo of the brand Flour Five Roses seems to have always been part of the landscape. But before it is installed at the top of the Montreal skyline in 1948, it is the flour mill of Ogilvie, who had built his mills on the edge of the Peel basin. This area was long used for the transhipment of grain and flour for export, one of the industries that made Montreal the metropolis of Canada. At the beginning of the Twentieth century, the Ogilvie Flour Mills Company is one of the companies family the most prosperous in Canada and the milling industry the most important of the british empire. Its activity dates back to 1801, near Quebec, and its installation in the mouth of the Lachine canal in the 1850s. In 1915, the seven mills can produce 19 000 minots of flour per day ! It is this same company that built the lift current, in 1946.

Forges to save the heritage

In this industrial sector, it circulates today between parapets of metal and concrete structures. This small building with the look of old surprises the visitor, on the corner of the street Riverside. It is an old pumping station which was very helpful to assist the city in the period of spring flood of the river. Montreal has found itself several times feet in the water in the course of its history and flood record was in April 1886. The water of the river rises up in Victoria square ! The drama determines the construction, the following year, the pumping station Mill, we also call Riverside. The building loses its utility to the suite of accommodation of the City of le Havre. It is retrieved in 2000 by the organization of the Forges of Montreal. Restored and renovated, the old pumping station is hosting a workshop forge where many enthusiasts practice this craft ancestral to the pleasure of the public.

Fire, iron, metal

Photo courtesy, Archives of the City of Montreal, the Funds of the service of supply, VM150-Y-1-2-007

The body of the Forges of Montreal aims to revive the traditional methods of blacksmithing and to transmit to future generations a heritage of technique and craftsmanship 3000 years old. Control the manufacturing of the metal is indeed an important milestone in the technical evolution of the human species. Before the transformations of the industrial era, work at the forge is a tough job, but essential for the development of a city, a colony or a farm. Horseshoes, farm tools, locks, or weapons, everything passes into the hands of the blacksmith. In the 1950s and until the 1980s, the City of Montreal operated a forge in the municipal workshops, at the corner of Rosemont and Saint-Vallier. Photo on the left, a man place a book under the pestle of a hammer mechanics, an innovation of the Nineteenth century which accelerated greatly in the work. To the right, one distinguishes the multiple pliers and the hammer used by the workers for the finishing and for small parts.