Annandale NHS

10/05/2026

10/05/2026

Floral Motif
Floral motifs broadly symbolize the brevity of human life, beauty, purity, and the hope of resurrection. Because flowers bloom and quickly wither, historic cemetery carvers used them to reflect mortality alongside spiritual renewal.

Common Floral Motifs & Specific Meanings

• Forget Me Not: Eternal love and lasting memory

• Rose: Expresses love, beauty, and hope. A red rose signifies passionate love, a white rose denotes purity, and a broken rosebud usually marks the premature death of a child or young adult.

• Lily: Represents innocence, purity, and the resurrection of the soul. It is one of the most common Christian symbols for eternal life.

• Ivy: Symbolizes eternal life, fidelity, and strong friendship because the vine clings securely to its surroundings.

• Poppy: Signifies sleep, peace, and eternal rest, historically associated with remembrance and mourning.

• Daisy: Represents innocence, gentleness, and youth, often carved on headstones for young children.

10/04/2026

Needle Punching with Heather Cork
Wednesday, October 21st from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Cost $75.00 (taxes included)

Discover the art of needle punching at Annandale NHS with instructor Heather Cork! Needle punching is a creative fibre art that uses a special needle to loop yarn or fibre through fabric, creating beautiful textured patterns and designs.
Join us for this hands-on workshop and create your own unique piece to take home.
Pre-registration is required and all supplies are included.

10/04/2026

Gravestones are more than markers showing where someone is buried. The symbols carved into stone can tell us about a person’s life, beliefs, family, and the time in which they lived. Before photographs and detailed personal records were common, these images helped families express messages of love, faith, hope, and remembrance.

Over the next few days, we will explore common symbols found in the Tillsonburg Cemetery,

10/03/2026

Gravestones Today

Today, gravestones are designed digitally on computers and carved using a combination of sandblasting, computer-controlled lasers, and diamond tooling. To create traditional lettering and borders, a stone cutter applies a digitally cut vinyl or rubber stencil to a polished granite slab and uses high-pressure abrasive sandblasting to carve out the design. For high-resolution photographs, portraits, and intricate scenery, computer-driven $\text{CO}_2$ lasers burn away microscopic layers of dark polished granite with pixel precision, allowing for detailed, photorealistic customization.

Image from Ingersoll, Tillsonburg & Thames Memorials
https://www.ingersollmemorials.com/

10/02/2026

Oscar’s Puzzles: A Museum Escape Room
Friday, October 23 from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
This is a timed event!
Cost $25.00 per team (taxes included) - pre-registration is required.

Try to escape Annandale NHS by solving puzzles and following clues that will set you free. Geared towards teens and adults.

Pre-registration is required and all supplies are included.

10/02/2026

Mid-20th Century Motifs & Technology
During the mid-20th century (roughly the 1930s through the 1970s), grave motifs underwent a dramatic shift away from elaborate Victorian religious allegories toward standardized civic, fraternal, and personal representations. Common symbols from this period include Freemasonry, Woodmen of the World, Knights of Columbus, and military service insignia, as well as depictions of personal hobbies, trades, and passions.

At the same time, gravestone manufacturing underwent a complete technological revolution. The labor-intensive, hand-chiseled methods of the 19th century were replaced by mechanized, assembly-line techniques driven by two major developments: the widespread adoption of granite and the invention of sandblast stenciling.

While 19th-century masons relied heavily on soft, workable stones like white marble, limestone, and sandstone, mid-20th-century stone yards shifted almost exclusively to granite due to its superior durability and low maintenance. New tools—such as pneumatic air hammers, wire saws, and high-pressure sandblasting with rubber stencils—made quarrying, cutting, shaping, and engraving hard granite fast and economical.

10/01/2026

Needle Punching with Heather Cork
Wednesday, October 21st from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Cost $75.00 (taxes included)

Discover the art of needle punching at Annandale NHS with instructor Heather Cork! Needle punching is a creative fibre art that uses a special needle to loop yarn or fibre through fabric, creating beautiful textured patterns and designs.
Join us for this hands-on workshop and create your own unique piece to take home.
Pre-registration is required and all supplies are included.

10/01/2026

Moving to the Modern Cemetery
On June 4, 1880, the Tillsonburg Cemetery Company was officially formed, electing a board of directors (including T.B. Bain and E.D. Tillson) to oversee its creation. The land was laid out in a "Tree of Life" design—with a main drive forming the trunk and looping roads acting as branches. In July, Mr. Honsberger was hired as the first sexton.

On May 16, 1881, Mrs. Elizabeth Derrough purchased the cemetery's first half-lot (5 grave sites) for $12.80 following the death of her husband, Andrew Derrough, a local tanner who may have been the cemetery's first burial. In January 1895, By-law 333 authorized the town council to purchase the land from the Tillsonburg Cemetery Company, establishing it as a municipally owned and operated cemetery.

During this Victorian era, gravestones became an intricate visual language. Visitors were expected to read the carvings like a book to understand the virtues, age, and spiritual state of the deceased. Influenced by Greek and Roman Revival styles, earlier markers featured elegiac motifs like the weeping willow and draped urn. Over time, grave art embraced deeper emotional expression and natural beauty, incorporating animals, books, and floral symbols—many of which we will see today.

Between the 1850s and 1870s, stonemasons crafted headstones entirely by hand using iron chisels, mallets, wedges, and rasps to split, smooth, and shape local stone blocks. Moving beyond flat carvings, sculptors began chipping away background stone to create three-dimensional, high-relief designs such as rounded urns, floral wreaths, and sculpted lambs. Masons mapped out inscriptions in pencil or charcoal before using precise, angled chisel strokes to cut sharp V-grooves designed to catch the natural sunlight.

09/30/2026

Today is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day. Today is a day for listening, learning, and reflecting on the history and ongoing legacy of residential schools in Canada.

Ways to observe today:
🧡 Wear orange to honor Survivors and remember the children who never came home.
📖 Read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action.
🎧 Listen to stories from First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Elders and Knowledge Keepers.
📍 Attend a local commemorative event or educational gathering in your community, including lighting of the Rotary Tower and all town flags being flown at half mast.