Travel to Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia, Tourism, and Travel Issues

February 1st, 2009

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia: Home of the Ice Skate


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“One of the oldest of Nova Scotia incorporated companies is the Starr Manufacturing Co. which was established in 1864 and incorporated in 1868 and is the oldest and largest skate manufacturing concern in the British Empire. While the principal output of the company is a complete line of ice skates of the most modern design, as well as roller skates, it is also engaged in the manufacture of bolts, nuts, rivets, railway spikes, axles, hinges, and other metal products such as iron fences and fire-escapes and is a jobber of bar iron, which the company uses to a large extent in the manufacture of its own products.”

- Financial Post, November 28, 1929

Compliments of www.hockeyshome.ns.ca

Yeah, just after the big stock market crash in October the Starr Manufacturing  Company, makes of the best tube skates int he world was a strong and vital company. In fact even during the beginning of the end of the good times for businesses until the Second World War this vital Dartmouth, Nova Scotia plants was shipping skates and other products to “China, Korea, Japan, Australia, France, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Great Britain and various European countries as well as Newfoundland. ”

Skating to Dartmouth is like cricket to England, it grew up with the town. And it was as important an activity  on Banook Lake as the huge ice sheds being loaded with thick winter ice for use in the summer. And half a blcok away was the best skate make in the world, the Starr Manufacturing Company. It was built right on top of the unused lock mechanisms and water turbine for the old Shubenacadie Canal, a mode of canal that went out when the railroad came in.

In the early 1900′s Starr introduced the Tube Skate,with a self-fastening blade that, unlike the previous buckle-on skates, were sold as a blade riveted to the boot. The boot had solid toes and thick felt tongues which were the first real skate.  as we know them now. It took until 1927 before Starr partnered with boot-maker, Bauer, to have the first modern hockey skate.

The Starr Manufacturing plant was demolished in 2000 long after it stopped making the best skates in the world. However, every winter just a block away, hundreds of people from Dartmouth still skate, play hockey and just enjoy the winter on Banook Lake.

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December 6th, 2008

December 6th, 1917 – A Day of Infamy in Halifax History


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In Halifax almost every school kid knows what happened on December 6th, 1917. It’s ingrained into the psyche of the city and it was literally the day the earth stood still.

On that cool December morning so long ago a densely-packed French munition ship, the Mont Blanc, collided with a Belgian ship, Imo, that was carrying relief supplies for the Belgian population suffering in World War I. The resulting explosion was the first man-made explosion of such force before the bomb on Hiroshima. IN fact the blast broke windows in Truro almost an hour away from Halifax.

Needless to say half of Halifax and Dartmouth were completely destroyed and almost 2,000 people died form the blast and being trapped in smashed homes. Thousands more suffered horrific wounds including blindness. It was so powerful that the fathers of the Atomic bomb studied the disaster in preparation for the bombs that destroyed the two Japanese cities.

Every December 6th, at 9am, there is a ceremony at the Memorial Bell Tower on Fort Needham, a site overlooking the narrows where the explosion took place. On the monument is a carillon of bells, donated in 1920 in memory of the two churches destroyed in the explosion. The presentation was made to the United Memorial Church, which was built to replace th lost churches,  by a young girl who had lost her entire family in the blast: mother, father and four brothers and sisters. The ringing of the bells can be heard across the Narrows to north Dartmouth.

At the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic there is a special area dedicated to the explosion that draws tens of thousands of persons each year.

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December 20th, 2007

The Mersey House – Liverpool, Nova Scotia


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Mike Loveridge is the “Publican” of The Mersey House, an almost derelict historic building in the heart of Liverpool. Not only did he breathe life into the old building he also made an important live entertainment venue for Nova Scotia

The Mersey House is the most prominent historical building in the centre of Liverpool on NThe Mersey Houseova Scotia’s beautiful South Shore. It has been completely renovated in the past three years and hosts a pub and restaurant and was nominated in 2006 as the ‘Nova Scotia Music Venue of the Year’.

The Mersey House hosts live entertainment year round with casual dining, catering, banquet facilities and a British-style fish and chips take-out. They are open at 11 am daily and on several occasions in the week we host a series of concerts that bring the best Maritime Artists to Liverpool. There is a small cover charge depending on the artist performing.

This New Year’s Eve features Hal Bruce, one of this region’s world ambassadors for musical talent.

The Mersey house is located at:

149 Main Street

Liverpool

Nova Scotia

B0T 1K0

Phone: 902-354-4000

Fax: 902-356-3303

Email: merseyhouse@hotmail.com

The Finest Live Music from Nova Scotia and beyond……year round

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