The Norland Branch, from 1978

No history of the Norland Branch was written while it ran, but its own members wrote its first years up themselves: page 11 of the Summer 1981 newsletter, headed “NORLAND BRANCH — A SUMMARY,” the branch's own account of its first three seasons, written when Norland took its turn compiling the newsletter. What follows is assembled from that page and the branch reports and officer lists either side of it; every claim below names the issue and page it comes from.

Twelve members, in Hilda Chynoweth's workshop

The branch's own account opens: “Our branch was formed after a visit to a convention by our two founders, Peggy Weaver, who has been interested in leather work for about 5 years, and Hilda Chynoweth, who has been doing leathercrafting for approximately 25 years. Our first meetings were held in the Norland Library, but we found that we got more out of meetings in Hilda's workshop, so it became our meeting room. We began in April 1978 with 12 members, and even though we've lost some, we've gained an equal number, and so still have 12 in our Branch.” (Summer 1981, page 11.) It calls its first two years “muddled through” and its third “ended on a high note” — modest words for a branch that, within two years of forming, was hosting a workshop of its own and sending an exhibition out to the Lindsay Public Library.

• Founded April 1978 by Peggy Weaver and Hilda Chynoweth, twelve members meeting in Hilda Chynoweth's workshop near Norland, Ontario
• Welcomed as the Society's branch at the 1979 Annual Meeting, announced by Vice-President Jack Meharg
• Sent its Leather '80 pieces on to the Public Library at Lindsay, Ontario, in January 1981 — the branch's first exhibition of its own
• Did not compete for the 1981 Weston Trophy, alongside the sixteen-year-old Belleville branch
• Phyllis McHale, a Norland member, elected the Society's 1st Vice-President for 1987–88, and later its President; Norland is still one of the Society's branches
• The branch's own reports continue in the Society's AGM booklets through 2022 — Tracey Howard's account of a year unable to meet through 2021's pandemic closure of the Norland School Hall, and meeting again from March 2022

Welcomed as a branch, 1979

The Society recorded the new group formally at its 1979 Annual Meeting, held at the Continental Inn, Barrie, and reported it in the newsletter the following January: “Jack Meharg, Vice-President was able to announce that the group of members in the Norland, Ontario area had been accepted as a branch. Those branch members present were introduced and we were pleased to welcome this enthusiastic group to our organization.” The same report names six Ontario branches represented at that meeting — Belleville, Hamilton, Norland, Toronto, Woodstock and Windsor — so Norland's welcome came at the very meeting the Society first counted it among them. (January 1980, page 1.)

A branch report, and a first exhibition

By Autumn 1980 Norland had its own entry in the newsletter's branch directory: “Norland — President — Mrs. Peggy Weaver, Coboconk, Ont. This branch holds their meetings at the home of Mrs. Hilda Chynoweth, on Hwy. 503, 1 mile east of Norland, usually on the last Thursday of each month.” (Autumn 1980, page 8.) The same issue records the branch's first appearance in a Society-wide event: the biennial Leather '80 exhibition, after its Ontario showing, was “on display at the Public Library in Lindsay, Ontario, under the auspices of the Norland Branch, C.S.C.L.,” from 20 January 1981. (Autumn 1980, page 2.)

The branch marked a milestone of its own that September. Its Summer 1981 report recalls a workshop “held at the Norland Community Hall on Sept. 13th, 1980,” taught by Hope Drysdale of Hamilton, who “made an early start from her home… braving a severe thunderstorm en route, she arrived in Norland before 9 a.m.” Of the branch's twelve members, eleven took part, learning the small Black Jack Mug pattern. Five more travelled the other way that winter, to two Saturday glove-making workshops in Barrie, and Jack Meharg gave the branch its own belt-making demonstration in the Norland Public Library. (Summer 1981, page 11.)

The branch's own annual report for 1979–80 names the branch’s 1979–80 executive: Hilda Chynoweth, President; Peggy Weaver, Vice-President; Grace Graham, Secretary; Dorothy Brown, Treasurer. (The 30th Annual Meeting programme, April 1980.)

The Weston Trophy record

Norland is not recorded entering the Society's branch competition in these early years. Helen Wheaton's report on the 1981 Weston Trophy, after scoring the Barrie, Hamilton, Toronto and Woodstock entries, closes its list with two branches that sent none: “BELLEVILLE: Did not compete. NORLAND: Did not compete.” (Summer 1981, page 8.) That a branch three years old, meeting in one member's workshop, appears in the same line as a branch inaugurated sixteen years earlier says more about the size of the Trophy's group entries than about Norland's youth. (See the Weston Trophy roll.)

Bill Sanders was the branch's Vice-President in 1982, named in its report to that year's Annual Meeting. (The 32nd Annual Meeting programme, April 1982.)

One of its own, on the Society's Executive

By the winter of 1987 the Society's Executive Directory names “Phyllis McHale, Box 68, Norland, Ontario” as 1st Vice-President — a Norland member in the Society's second office, less than a decade after the branch was welcomed. (Winter 1987, page 1.) The Society's own later records carry her further: she held the same office again in 1988, and by the 2000s served as the Society's President. Other Norland members appear in the same run of newsletters as contributors rather than officers — Glenn Nelson's leathercraft technique pieces, and a poem by Emma Windatt, both in the same Winter 1987 issue — the branch, by its own tenth year, was a settled part of the Society's pages as well as its executive.

Russell Lynch was Branch President by 1988, and Russ Lynch — the register keeps both spellings as printed, one with a doubled "l" — was its Vice-President the following year. (The 38th and 39th Annual Meeting programmes, 1988 and 1989.)

Still on the roll

Summer 1991 lists “Norland — Carol Broumley” among the branch presidents. (Summer 1991, page 8.) She is still there in Summer 1992, and Art Cousins has the branch in 1994. (Summer 1992, page 9; Fall 1994, page 10.) The Society's own membership roster today still carries Norland as one of its branches, with Carol Broumley among its longest-serving members, dated there from 1985 — so where Barrie and Belleville gave up their charters in 1985, Norland is one of the three branches, with Hamilton and Mississauga, still meeting — the Woodstock Branch decided not to continue on 18 September 2010, and Toronto closed in January 2011.

Still meeting, into the 2020s

The account above ends in 1991. The branch's own story continues in the Society's own website documents — the Annual General Meeting report booklets it began posting from 2016 — and what follows is assembled from those in the same way: every claim names the booklet and the officer who signed the report.

The gap between 1991 and 2014 is not quite empty. A Fall 1995 note on the branch, "Norland Leather Society", reports it "continues strong with nine members" under Art Cousins as President — an office he had held since at least 1994 and kept through 1997 — with Della Howard Vice-President and Craft Convenor alongside Hilda Chynoweth, and Phyllis McHale by then Secretary-Treasurer. Marian Sim was Vice-President in 1997. A decade later, Barbara Chynoweth signed the branch's own annual report as Secretary in 2007, some years before the Presidency and Vice-Presidency she later held for the Society itself. (Fall 1995, page 5; 1994-fall, page 10; 1997-summer, page 8; the Society's 1997 Annual Report; the 2007 Annual Meeting minutes.) Norland’s Sandra Roberts was one of the branch’s regular entrants in the Society’s own competitions across these same years: the 2001 Craftsman Ribbon list credits her, by branch, with two ribbons for a Wolf Pyrography and an Indian Pyrography piece. (2001-spring, page 3, “C.S.C.L. Craftsman Ribbons 2001.”)

Tracey Howard's report to the 66th Annual General Meeting, covering 2014–15, opens with the branch's Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser and runs through a year of projects: wallet interiors and assembly in September and October, a Christmas decoration and gift exchange in November, lamp shade covering and decorating over January and February, a dragon project taught by a visiting Jim Wilkes in May, and a vest pattern begun in April and carried into May. The branch demonstrated at the Fenelon Falls Fair and the Kinmount Fair that year, and closed with its annual barbecue. (66th Annual General Meeting reports, 2016, page 6.)

By the 68th Annual General Meeting, reporting 2017–18, Howard described a Labour Day demonstration at the Pioneer Building at the Kinmount Fair, a two-part embossed eagle's-head project taught by Paul Kitchener across September and October, a CSCL workshop making a hinged box with instructor Lauch Harrison in November — “nobody left till they were completed” — and a January meeting copying a pattern from a Tandy catalogue. (68th Annual General Meeting reports, 2018.)

Two more Norland members served the Society at large in these same years: Pat Bullock held the Society's Correspondence (Corresponding Secretary) post for seven years running, 2010 through 2016; Sheena Burger chaired the Society's Membership Committee from 2016 through 2018. (Masthead rosters, 2010-2018 newsletters; 2011-61st and 2012-62nd Annual Meeting reports.)

The branch's report for 2021–22, printed in the minutes of the 72nd Annual General Meeting, records that no meetings were held through 2021: the Norland School Hall Community Centre, where the branch meets, was closed for the pandemic. It reopened in early 2022, and the branch held its first meeting back on 9 March, making little people's leather moccasins. (Minutes of the 72nd Annual General Meeting, 2022.) Della Chynoweth, the branch's own member since 1978, was named the Society's Honourary Life Member in 2024 — told on her own page.

2024–25: the last report

Tracey Howard’s report for 2024–25, printed with the minutes of the 75th Annual General Meeting, is the last the branch made to the Society. The September meeting was cancelled; in October and November the members made Christmas brooches (“Broaches”, as the report has it), and in January and February sheepskin mitts. In March 2025 Norland hosted the Society’s workshop making a hinged box, from the workshop programme under Lauch Harrison and Jim Wilkes. April’s meeting was lost to the ice storm that closed everything in the area. The branch was planning its May meeting, and its barbecue, when the Society voted to dissolve. (Minutes of the 75th Annual General Meeting, 2025.)

Assembled from January 1980 p1, Autumn 1980 pp2 and 8, Summer 1981 pp8 and 11, Winter 1987 p1, Summer 1991 p8, the 30th, 32nd, 38th and 39th Annual Meeting programmes , Fall 1994 p10, Fall 1995 p5, Summer 1997 p8, and the Society's 1997 Annual Report. Modern account from the Society's own 66th and 68th Annual General Meeting report booklets and the minutes of the 72nd.