Photo- Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum
Jennifer Fenwick Irwin from the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum has a request from the UK for information on the Mann family of Blacks Corners.
All Jennifer could find was this photo of Lorraine Mann from 1986 who was working at Leigh Instruments. The inquirer is asking about the 1970’s – Herbert John and his children (one of which was Lorraine).
Any info leave in the comment section or email Jennifer at 613) 253-7013 or email at: cpbmuseum@outlook.com
I found this online — a discussion on the Mann family of Black’s Corners
I have been trying to track down details of the children born to Herbert John and Irene Beryl Violet Mann whilst resident in Canada in the 1950s and 1960s for some time without success and am seeking any advice or help in how or where I can obtain the details.
Herbert John Mann was the son of Arthur Allen Mann and Ellen Frances Mary Mann and was born on the 22nd January 1920. He married Irene Beryl Violet Hibberd on the 10th September 1949 in Petersfield, Hampshire and they had two children Carolyn Leslie (b1951) and Hazel M (b1954) both born in Petersfield.
The family then emigrated to Canada and I understand that they went on to have a further seven or eight children and it is these children that I am trying to trace details of as I have no record of their names, dates/places of birth or any other details. The only other information I have on Herbert is details on a headstone commemorating his death in 1978 which is situated at St. James Anglican Church, Carleton Place Cemetery, Lanark Co., Ontario. The headstone reads:-
Herbert J. Mann (Vidamour) 1920 – 1978 His Wife Irene B. V. Hibberd 1928 – In Loving Memory
Can anyone help?
Diana and woodchal many thanks for your informative responses to my posting and your contributions are much appreciated.
woodchal, the obituary you found has been of great help in enabling me to identify the names of the additional children of Herbert and Irene and answer a lot of questions. I am slightly confused by the reference in the obituary to Herbert being “also survived by four brothers and two sisters” for as far as I am aware Herbert was the only child of Arthur and Ellen Mann. I suppose the newspaper was only relying on information provided to them.
Diana, it’s interesting that you once lived at Black’s Corners and that it is such a tiny place – I must check it out as a matter of curiosity. I appreciate your advice and tips on sources to explore to try to ascertain further information and I certainly intend to check them out. I would also thank you for checking out some records so far and your proposal to contact some people you know and look forward to hearing from you further should that prove successful.
Having now become aware of the names of the further children of Herbert and Irene I can now take this a step further and try to find their dates and places of birth. As I am resident in the United Kingdom I am not aware of how the Canadian Registration system works. Is it possible to check indexes for births registered in the 1950s and 1960s as it is over here in England?
Sometime around 1910, Colorado acquired a bell in 1894 by the C.S. Bell Company in Hillsboro, Ohio, and the historic bell weighed nearly 500 pounds. Its chiming could be heard across the tiny campus of Colorado Agricultural College and throughout most of Fort Collins, CO.
The bell rang every morning to announce the start of classes, and as you might expect on a college campus, students often gave into the temptation to pull the bell’s rope in the middle of the night, angering nearby residents.
Sometime around 1915 it was reported in the Rocky Mountain Collegian that the bell’s clapper had been stolen – perhaps by residents who had grown weary of the frequent and very loud noise. Students weren’t about to stop ringing the bell, however, and used sledge hammers and even an axe to make it chime. The Collegian reported in 1919 that the bell was permanently silenced when cracked by overzealous students and their hammers. The ruined bell, legend has it, remained in the Old Main Tower for years. One night – likely in 1919 – a group of at least four men climbed the tower and removed the bell. They managed to slip away unseen, but that is where their planning had ended. They didn’t know what to do with their prize and, scared of being caught, they moved the instrument to a nearby farm and buried it. That’s where it remained for the next 50 years.
By the early 1970s, the original bell had been all but forgotten. A select few members of a fraternity and its alumni were aware of the story but were sworn to secrecy. But when it was revealed that the farm where the bell was buried was on the market, action was required. The bell was exhumed and – for the first time in five decades – moved back to an off-campus fraternity house in Fort Collins. There it remained, hidden, for a number of years. In an effort to keep the bell safe, it was decided to move it again – this time out of state. The bell was no longer in prime form and although in still decent form it had a broken yoke. It needed to be refurbished and restored, but it was determined the bell could be rung again without fear of damage.
The bell will reside in a tower outside the Iris and Michael Smith Alumni Centre, which is connected to the new stadium. So all bell that ends bell. So what about one of our bells? Yes, in Carleton Place we had many bells that rang throughout town. The Town Hall bell, the MacArthur Mill bell and the many school bells that rang each day.
At the open house to the Hawthorne Mill yesterday there was a gentleman that brought Volundur Wally Thorbjornsson pictures from the removal of the bell tower from the building. Unfortunately he did not get his name or contact info as it was in the midst of giving the people that had lined up for access. Wally has decided to restore the tower to it’s former glory and would love to get information on where the bell is located today. Any and all leads are welcome.
It’s not the honour that you take with you but the heritage you leave behind.
It would be fantastic if it was found but, like our missing Ballygiblin sign that should be replaced I hope it has not been melted down. So if you know anything and would like to hear it ring again like the Renfrew Mill/Rencraft Fire Dept once did then drop Wally a line.
John Armour–I hope that they found my kite that I got wrapped around the bell, when I was 12 years old, (with Greg Wilson)
Ray Paquette–One of the “jobs” I had in the early ’60’s was a two or three day job I got to work for Charlie Baker of Almonte who had a contract to clear out the building pictured of all the abandoned but salvageable material that remained in the building from when it was a functioning woolen mill. Leigh Instruments which was expanding rapidly and which was housed in the former office wing of the plant was preparing to take over the remainder of the mill. It was this time of year and it was hot, dirty labour and I believe that Milt Phillips, my neighbour at the time, might have been behind Mr. Baker hiring me.
Llew Lloyd–I worked for my Dad that summer cleaning an degreasing all the beams . We then spray painted them and painted the floors . It sure brightened the place up . Ted Lemaistre told me he worked as a joe boy there all summer too . When it came time to get paid he was asked if he’d rather be paid in stock options . He and every kid at that time took the money . Mrs. Robertson was smarter.
Ray Paquette—And your final comment on the stock option probably explains why we are not independently wealthy and spending the summer following our favourite baseball team around the league circuit!!
Llew Lloyd--Now you’ve got me working again . I knew I had this photo tucked away somewhere . That’s my father , Llewellyn Wescott Lloyd in the foreground of a good pic of the Hawthorne Mill in the mid 30’s . The fourth floor and bell tower are still there , but when I zoom in I’m not sure if the Bell is . As I’ve explained in other posts, even though my name is David Llewellyn Lloyd I am known by both David and Llew because of a nickname ritual that goes back to my public school days . ” Ossie ” McNeely is the best example of this as all the McNeely boys ended up being called Ossie . Dot Smith somehow was ” overlooked ” .
Another Bell ~ By far the most pleasant feature in our busy town of Carleton Place is the number of bells, which at stated periods, ring out their various calls. A new one was this week placed in the steeple of Mr. Wm. H. Wylie’s woolen mill by. Mr. Bond, of Carleton Place.
Thorbjornsson is happy to announce the missing Hawthorne Mill bell has been located. It will be on display during Saturday’s open house.
The Hawthorne Mill tower is missing two stories, which came off in the late ’80s. Everything was taken to the dump except the bell.
“I had no idea there was a bell tower on the Hawthorne Mill building, until a gentleman came to our first open house and dropped off some pictures.” Thorbjornsson said.
The developer managed to connect with the fellow later on on Facebook, and “that family has been very active in doing research and giving me support in the search for the bell.”
Thorbjornsson said he immediately made the decision to rebuild the mill’s tower when he saw the pictures, which belonged to Bill and Carole Flint.
“Carole worked for Leigh Instruments for years and Bill worked for them as well,” Irwin explained. “That is why he was on site (in Carleton Place) the day they took the tower down.”
“I set myself on a mission that I wanted to find the original bell,” Thorbjornsson said. “I put a call out on social media, and I called a lot of connected people in town that I knew might have some information.”
He managed to piece enough information together to get on the trail of the bell, and it was not long until he found out Cameron McGregor was the contractor who removed the bell.
“I called him up, and he was a little guarded when I brought up the bell,” Thorbjornsson said. “However, I explained to him why I wanted to know and what my intentions were.”
It turns out DRS Technologies’ general manager at the time hired McGregor to take the structure down because it was not in good shape anymore.
“A lot of people and organizations were in touch with him and wanted the bell,” Thorbjornsson said. “So, he told Cameron to take the bell and hide it.”
The bell eventually found its way to McGregor’s hunting camp.
“Someone eventually recognized it,” Thorbjornsson said. “Cameron called up the general manager and asked what to do with the bell.”
“He was told to donate it to the local museum, which he did in the mid ’90s,” the developer added.
Unfortunately, the item was not catalogued until 2008.
All this time it has been in storage at the Neelin Street Community Centre (arena).
“The museum has a storage area at the community centre for big stuff,” Irwin said. “It was sitting there as an unidentified bell.”
“We pieced everything together relatively quick, and it was a huge relief for me to hear the bell was safe,” Thorbjornsson said.
“Jennifer and I started talking and we have come to an understanding,” he continued. “Lawyer Ken Bennett is working on the agreement.”
The bell will go back in the tower once it is reconstructed – on a long-term loan. However, it is still protected as the museum’s property.
“It is very heartwarming to see it put back,” Irwin said.
In the summer of 1969 the chimney came down as Leigh Instruments stepped up its efforts in the field of pollution. The chimney, which was once a Carleton Place landmark, became a pile a rubble on the bank of the Mississippi River and was no longer a symbol of industry activity.
Even though the once factory chimney was a sign of good and evil-it once was a producer of dirt and grime in towns all around the world. It was said during the first flush of the Industrial Revolution, the smoke from the factory chimneys was so dense that people had to grope their way through the streets in the middle of the afternoon in the British midlands.
Did you know that the first “black box”, or Crash Position Indicator was developed right here in Carleton Place? A unique system for locating a downed plane, its passengers and the flight recorder, this brainchild of Harry Stevinson, an engineer with NAE’s Flight Research Laboratory, was first manufactured and marketed by the Avionics Division of Leigh Instruments Ltd., in the early 1960’s. They were made of fibre glass and foam but tough.
There was a story that one time the Air Force showed up as one accidentally went “off” at Leigh Instruments and there was concern a plane had crashed in CP. The helicopter swirled over homes and used the river as a guiding landing strip. It landed in the parking lot and the tailwinds blew lawn chairs every where.
Ray PaquetteThis is not a black box-if they called it that, it was misnamed. This is a “crash position indicator or CPI” which simply broadcasts a homing signal for SAR aircraft. A “black box”, which is actually day glo orange in colour, monitors and records various readings from the aircraft operating systems, e.g., the engines. Actually the “black box” has two components: the monitoring component; and the “cockpit voice recorder”…
Susan Mary RiskI did soldering, prepping for Conap and stamping on those, made by Leigh Instruments for the Navy, and they were called black boxes back in the day!
Jeff DezellBack in high school there was a search and rescue helicopter landed on the west lawn of CPHS. Apparently the door of the testing lab for the crash indicator was left open…caused quite a stir during typing class I recall…otherwise dull day got hectic!!
Ray PaquetteAs a follow on to this post, I wonder how many CPI’s were deployed from downed aircraft that actually led to a rescue of crew or passengers?🤔
In 1975 Leigh Instruments laid off 27 workers in Carleton Place and assured creditors they were solvent.
Harry Stevinson invented the aerodynamically deployed Crash Position Indicator to overcome the problem that normal CPI’s had only worked in 23% of crashesWhen Leigh went bankrupt there had been about 200 crashes with harry’s CPI on board and only 2 had failed. When fitted with the flight data recorder/cockpit voice recorder the records had been recovered 100%, with armoured box recorders the recovery is around 66%. I was personally involved in the incident where the helicopter landed next to the Leigh Plant. I had done a major redesign of the helicopter CPI and a prototype had been built and was doing certification testing. This was in the anechoic chamber which was supposed to prevent the signal escaping. The helicopter pilot was in contact with Trenton Search and Rescue Centre who called Leigh and the switchboard put me on the line. I told them that we only had 4 hours left of a 48 life test so the pilot said that we could finish the test. Unfortunately the idiot in charge of the chamber had knocked a hole in the sealed wall to run wires through so that beacons could be rotated using a TV antenna rotator. These wires provided a nice receiving antenna inside the chamber and transmitting antenna outside.
Did you know there’s a historic Carleton Place connection with Air Force One? It all goes back to one of the area’s high-tech giants, Leigh Instruments Ltd., which was established in the town in the early 1960s and became renowned for its high-quality tech products. One of its claims to fame was the production of the aviation-changing crash position indicator, which was a predecessor of the black box. The CPI is a radio beacon designed to be ejected from an aircraft so that it survives a crash to broadcast a homing signal to rescuers.
The concept was developed in the 1940s and ’50s, with production eventually being contracted to Leigh Instruments. Canadian and American air force aircraft – including Air Force One – were equipped with CPI, and by the 1970s it became a standard item on many aircraft, making Leigh Instruments one of the largest Canadian electronics firms until 1990.
There are also connections between the company’s original investors and one of the town’s early industrial families – the Findlays – bringing old and new technology together.
Did you know there’s a historic Carleton Place connection with Air Force One? It all goes back to one of the area’s high-tech giants, Leigh Instruments Ltd., which was established in the town in the early 1960s and became renowned for its high-quality tech products. One of its claims to fame was the production of the aviation-changing crash position indicator, which was a predecessor of the black box. The CPI is a radio beacon designed to be ejected from an aircraft so that it survives a crash to broadcast a homing signal to rescuers.
The concept was developed in the 1940s and ’50s, with production eventually being contracted to Leigh Instruments. Canadian and American air force aircraft – including Air Force One – were equipped with CPI, and by the 1970s it became a standard item on many aircraft, making Leigh Instruments one of the largest Canadian electronics firms until 1990.
Fact:
One day in 1975 the workers at Leigh instruments in Carleton Place received an unexpected holiday. a phone call was received stating that a bomb had been placed in the building and was set to explode at 3:15 PM. As a precautionary method the employees were sent home in the early afternoon. Members of the Carleton place Police dept and its supervisory staff conducted a search of the building, but they found nothing unusual.
Carleton Place, being Carleton Place, found quite a number of spectators standing outside the building as 3:15 approached, but there was nothing to see. A similar hoax had recently occurred at the Digital Plant in Kanata. This was the first in three attempts made by someone unknown to police. In April of 1979 charges were brought against a Carleton Place businessman who had orchestrated the whole thing.
Buy Linda Secaspina’s Books— Flashbacks of Little Miss Flash Cadilac– Tilting the Kilt-Vintage Whispers of Carleton Place and 4 others on Amazon or Amazon Canada or Wisteria at 62 Bridge Street in Carleton Place
lindaseccaspina 
Harry Stevinson invented the aerodynamically deployed Crash Position Indicator to overcome the problem that normal CPI’s had only worked in 23% of crashesWhen Leigh went bankrupt there had been about 200 crashes with harry’s CPI on board and only 2 had failed. When fitted with the flight data recorder/cockpit voice recorder the records had been recovered 100%, with armoured box recorders the recovery is around 66%.
I was personally involved in the incident where the helicopter landed next to the Leigh Plant. I had done a major redesign of the helicopter CPI and a prototype had been built and was doing certification testing. This was in the anechoic chamber which was supposed to prevent the signal escaping. The helicopter pilot was in contact with Trenton Search and Rescue Centre who called Leigh and the switchboard put me on the line. I told them that we only had 4 hours left of a 48 life test so the pilot said that we could finish the test.
Unfortunately the idiot in charge of the chamber had knocked a hole in the sealed wall to run wires through so that beacons could be rotated using a TV antenna rotator. These wires provided a nice receiving antenna inside the chamber and transmitting antenna outside.