The Grey Roots Museum & Archives 1930s winterized hearse was carefully loaded yesterday to go to the Canadian Conservation Institute for its long awaited (and anticipated!) conservation treatment through the federal government's Conservation Treatment Program.

In 2011, Grey Roots applied to the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) to have our 1930s winter hearse stabilized and conserved. Last week we got word that the horse-drawn wooden hearse will be heading to CCI in Ottawa this fall! With world-leading conservation scientists, CCI works with heritage institutions and professionals to ensure public collections are preserved and accessible to Canadians now and in the future. Such a detailed conservation treatment just wouldn't be financially feasible for us to do ourselves, but thanks to CCI's Conservation Treatment Program, the only conservation costs we have to pay for this project are for artefact transportation -- and for that we're truly grateful!

The hearse was originally made for William Watson of Priceville, a local undertaker and harness-maker. Often a hearse of this type had removable runners and could be transformed into a summer vehicle with the addition of wheels; however, this hearse was kept exclusively for winter driving. According to the book Priceville: Its Roots / Routes, gas pumps began to spring up in Priceville in the late 1920s, but the main roads only began to be plowed for wheeled vehicles in 1943. It wasn't until 1950 that the majority of winter roads were cleared of snow. Apparently mail carriers still used horses both summer and winter until the mid-1940s. Tom Currie believed he was the only person to drive this sleigh hearse until it stopped in 1952.

Making its way from a barn via the South Grey Museum and then to Grey Roots in 2006, it is Grey County's only known horse-drawn funerary transportation vehicle. At the grand old age of 80+, this vehicle is about to go further (geographically) than it's ever gone before! Bon voyage!. This will be a multiyear process, but we're already so excited to see it completed.

source: media release, Grey Roots