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There was once a quarry in Deep Gulch that, according to local oral history, was operated by an English company. It was located near the shoreline and the property of James Walsh. A steep path led down to it.¹ Slate was apparently excavated and shipped back to England. Little is known about this quarry, including the name of the company that operated it.
According to former resident Cecil Morgan, the people living nearby used to get rocks from the quarry to build foundations for their houses and root cellars, as well as rock walls to protect their gardens.² He also reported that his grandfather used flat rocks collected at the quarry to create a flagstone walkway on his property in Noder Cove. It led from the stable to the house and connected with some other houses in the community.
Martha LeDrew of Deep Gulch, born in 1908, lived in that community until she was 22, when she married and moved into Cupids.³ She has said that she would sometimes take her accordion to the quarry to play because it was a lovely place to sit for awhile.
And we used to spend Sunday evenings, I would take the accordion and go up, myself and Hussey was living there then with an old lady, and we we would take the accordion and we would go down on the water side. There was steps you could go down and come in. It was a lovely place. And I would play the accordion until I would get tired.
– Martha LeDrew
Her family in Port de Grave said that, on a good day—if the wind was right—they could hear her playing all the way across the bay.
I used to take the accordion myself and go round in there and play. And my cousins lived in Port de Grave, right across from us over on the Port de Grave shore, and they told me that they used to listen to me playing the accordion, and that would be a nice calm day. Maybe in the evening after dinner, or any time like that. And they told me different times they heard me playing the accordion over there, and I could hardly believe that, but they said they could.
– Martha LeDrew
¹ Interview with James Fowler by Kelly Butler, August 6, 1997, Cupids Historical Society Collection, Cupids Legacy Centre.
² Interview with Cecil Morgan by Kelly Butler, August 20, 1997, Cupids Historical Society Collection, Cupids Legacy Centre.