New attractions at Marshville festival

Orval Storey spent most of his life running a garage in Chambers Corners.

As a child he’d join his father working on cars after school and during the summer months. He eventually took over the shop.

“We were there for years,” he said. “That’s all I’ve ever done.”

He didn’t miss the daily grind after he retired in 2000. But he definitely missed seeing his customers.

Lately, Storey has been part of a team of six or seven volunteers, who work for most of the year maintaining the Marshville Heritage Village in Wainfleet.

During the past few weeks, the volunteers have been working hard to prepare the village for tens of thousands of visitors they’re expecting this weekend for the 28th annual Marshville Heritage Festival, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

This year that work has included recreating an old planing mill, setting up a barbershop that served the people of Dunnville for decades, as well as restoring a historic train station that has been part of the village for the past few years.

“I got down on my knees and cleaned the whole thing,” Storey said, gesturing to the newly laid hardwood floor.

The tongue-and-groove planks were reclaimed lumber, and the floor was spotted with marks where the boards had once been covered by woodwork. But the floor will eventually be refinished, making it as good as new, he said. “We have some great workers,” he said. During the festival itself, the core team of volunteers swells to hundreds of people who team up to run the event.

Storey will be overseeing automotive history displays set up in the old Dean’s garage.

“I have a lot of nostalgia – gas pumps, thermometers, clocks,” he said. “I have a real assortment of that, and I’ve been collecting for years.”

Teaming up with his son-in-law and grandson, Storey said it will take most of Friday to set up the displays of “stuff that a lot of people have never seen.”

For Storey, the festival is an opportunity to meet with people who share his interest in automobile nostalgia.

Dean’s garage is just one of numerous historic attractions and displays that keep people coming back to the heritage village year after year.

The Bill Sorge Barbershop from Dunnville is one of the new additions to the village this year. Marshville Heritage Society member Bob Shoalts said Sorge had run his barbershop for 50 or 60 years in the nearby town, and the heritage society bought the contents of the shop “lock, stock and barrel” after Sorge died a few years ago.

“He was kind of a character, a longtime barber in Dunnville,” Shoalts said.

Festival organizers are hoping to have someone playing the role of a barber when the crowds arrive for the festival.

Meanwhile, a historic barn that was added to the village a few years ago has now become home to the Crystal Beach Planing Mill, a shop that was in operation since about 1880. The Marshville Heritage Society bought the mill’s original equipment dating back more than a 130 years.

“It’s all here. Tables saws, planers, you name it,” he said.

Shoalts said several pieces of the old equipment will be in use during the festival, while other historic items will be on display.

Ledgers dating back to the start of that business were among the collection the Marshville Heritage Society purchased. Some of those books list Shoalts Brothers Construction as a customer.

“We used to buy stuff from them,” Shoalts said, after looking at a ledger dating back to the early 1980s.

“But some of them date back to the 1880s,” he said. “They didn’t miss anything.”

In addition to the heritage displays and attractions at the festival, visitors will have an opportunity to bring some of that heritage home with them since an antique auction sale has been added to the lineup of activities, that also includes more than 100 craft vendors.

The festival is open each from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

More information is available at www. marshvilleheritagefestival.ca/.