Remembering the Barnet village

By Dan Hilborn
Published Oct. 15, 2005


There was a time, more than a century ago, when the largest lumber mill in North America was located in the most secluded corner of Burnaby.

Over the years, the neighbourhood on Burrard Inlet became a small industrial town where a steel shipbuilding plant was contracted to build submarines for the former Royal Russian Navy.

And now, the almost forgotten history of the small Village of Barnet has been brought together in a beautiful 250-page coffee table book full of historic photos and stories edited by local historian Harry Pride, with the assistance of the City of Burnaby.

Today, the old village is nothing more than a memory, with commemorative plaques where its most noted features once stood. But, in an effort to keep the history alive, Pride interviewed more than 125 pioneers of the tiny hamlet for his new book, In the Shadow by the Sea: Recollections of Burnaby's Barnet Village.

There's nobody more keen on Burnaby's history than Pride, who was a founding member of what used to be known as Burnaby Heritage Village and co-author of the Burnaby Centennial Anthology produced for the city's 100th birthday party in 1992.

"All of this history is significant, and it's all going to be lost if we don't record it now," Pride said this week. "Families don't often realize what they've got hidden away in their boxes of photos. So we're trying to get access to that while the people are still alive."

For the past two years, Pride has dedicated himself to learning the history of Barnet Village and what he has found does indeed fill a book.

"People came from all over the world to Barnet village," he said. "There were mill jobs and chemical plant jobs, so we had people from Nordic areas, Russia, the Ukraine, China, Japan and India. There were lots of people from India who saw Barnet as a place where they could get a job."

Barnet village had a population of about 150 residents at the turn of the 20th century. Its largest employer was the North Pacific Lumber Co., which was the biggest mill on the continent with more than 360 workers at its peak in 1932.

Sandra Hall, who was born in the village, is one of the 60 people who wrote their personal recollections for the book. She describes Barnet as a "paradise" with "travel-poster views" and the scent of salt air on the breeze.

Hall writes longingly about her childhood in the village, remembering friends, neighbours and the fun they had, and even some of the mishaps, such as the first time she had a sleepover and accidentally set the family's laundry on fire by trying to cook breakfast on a wood stove.

Rosemary and Alan Fish wrote the story of their father, John, who started work at the lumber mill before being finishing his schooling and taking a job as a lab technician at the former Nichol Chemical plant. They remember when their father would row across the inlet to chop down their Christmas tree from the North Shore mountains.

"The most powerful thing I learned was how people used to help each other," Pride said, adding that neighbours would often pool their food so everyone had enough to eat, and schools taught home economics courses so the children could learn to make their own clothes.

"There are stories of hardship, but there was also lots of fun, too, like Christmas parties with Santa Claus and Halloween and potato roasts."

Pride said the task of collecting materials and writing and editing the book was a full time job for several years. He collected exactly 1,635 photos and used more than 500 of them in the book. The City of Burnaby Community Heritage Commission assisted with the publication, and Shell Canada Ltd. contributed $3,000 towards the cost.

In the Shadow by the Sea: Recollections of Burnaby's Barnet Village is available at the cashier's office on the main floor of Burnaby City Hall for $30 or by calling 604-294-7400.