Brian Roulston
Hello everyone, since 2015, I’ve been lucky to be among the many great volunteers and writers at the North End Breezes. It’s been fun researching and reading about our North End and the city in which we live, Hamilton, Ontario.
A CANAL AND A HARBOUR
By Brian Roulston The piers of the Burlington Canal, lighthouse and the Beach Strip are popular for walking, sightseeing, picture taking and fishing. Long before the arrival of Europeans and the Empire Loyalists, centuries-old oak trees, weeping willows and...
SUMMERTIME IN THE CITY
By Brian Roulston Everybody loves a picnic, even the ants and our beloved North End is one of the best areas in the city for one. The month of July is also considered the best month of the year for a picnic. So, grab some sandwiches or get takeout and visit the many...
F.F. Dalley’s
By Brian Roulston Near the end of the19th century, leather shoes and boots became affordable to the masses and one Hamilton company capitalized on that by manufacturing and selling a product to give them a shine. The company, F.F Dalley’s Co. Ltd, had plants in...
Lake Monsters
by Brian Roulston Almost every culture around the world has myths and legends of large snake-like creatures in their local waters. Hamilton Bay, or rather Burlington Bay as it was called then is no exception. Most of us are familiar with the story of “Nessie”, an...
Gas Lighting In Hamilton
By Brian Roulston Today, we often take for granted that our brightly lit streets or sidewalks have been around forever. Like many cities Hamilton’s first foray into lighting our streets and our homes came as a byproduct of burning coal. Candles and kerosene were...
Burlington Heights
By Brian Roulston There was a time when there were no cars or roads, only a trail left by horses through the dense forest. On a clear sunny day, the sky would be a heavenly blue. Free of smog and pollution which would not become a thing until the latter part of the...
The Boathouse Community of Cootes Paradise
By Brian Roulton Sometime during the early 1900s, a community with about 100 boathouses made mainly of tar paper and corrugated iron in various shades of decay popped up along the south shore of Cootes Paradise, not much more than a stone's throw away from Burlington...
ICE HARVEST ON HAMILTON BAY
Cutting Ice On the Bay Image courtesy of Local History and Archives, Hamilton Public Library By Brian Roulston Hamilton Bay has played an essential part in Hamilton’s economic and recreational wellbeing since the 1700s, mainly in the moving of goods and people during...
CHRISTMAS SHOPPING
By Brian Roulston Many of us will be turning to the internet to do some or all of our Christmas shopping this year, partly due to the pandemic and a trend that has emerged worldwide over the past decade or more. It might be fun to travel back to a time when there were...
A History Lesson: The Spanish Flu
By Brian Roulston The First World War saw Great Britain mobilize almost nine million men and women for the first time against the German’s between 1914 and 1918. As one war was winding down, another war was just beginning. An unknown disease was claiming the lives of...
