WATER POWER SAWMILLS IN NEWFOUNDLAND Written and Illustrated By

PREFACE This book is mainly the result of a family effort over the past three years. During the summer months the 'research crew ' consisted of my wife, Geraldine, our son, Stirling (who was two-and-one-half years old when we began studying old sawmills), and myself. The winter months, when we were confined to the environs of St. John's, offered time for reflection on past summer activities and opportunity for research, writing, drawing and building working models. During our research we travelled extensively throughout Newfoundland and Great Britain and, in the process, we experienced great satisfaction from these wonderful old mills of yesteryear. The above points are worth noting because it shows that it has a fascination for all ages. I suppose this book might have some merit as an industrial archaeological project- we hope so. But, as a family project, it was all fun and games. The picnics beside the babbling mill brooks amidst peaceful and beautiful forest scenery; the excitement of discovering medieval books in some dusty corner of a library; the pleasures and satisfaction in building a working model sawmill; the acquaintance of many new friends we met on our travels. But perhaps, more importantly, we experienced for ourselves that these dishevelled old mills are not merely useless brutes from the past, like some old stone relic in a glass cage that only experts can appreciate. On the contrary, mills are active places. While adults may marvel at the ingenuity of our ancestors, little children like Stirling in their fantasies see leprechauns and other fairytale heroes behind every cog and wheel; in short, to a child old watermills are great big oversized toys inhabited by all the imaginary friends their active minds can dream of. The fairytale stories of magic wee folk conjured up by a lively, excited little boy gave us the sort of precious memories that all parents treasure. Like hundreds of families, our visits t