Avonport Reclaimed Wood Recon

Article submitted by Stephen Parsons; Images by Mary Elizabeth O’Toole

Looking for reclaimed wood

On the last weekend of January, Mary Elizabeth and I took a drive out to Avonport to check out the wood supply of Andrew Bland who with his family has been recovering wood from churches, halls, factories, and decommissioned buildings for many years.

The drive towards the valley was beautiful as always, even without the Fall colours or summer foliage. Andrew lives off Oak Island Road, a dirt road that begins just after the turnoff at the Avonport exit. The century home and outbuildings of Andrew’s property give evidence of farming history, although it has obviously been many years since a plow has tilled the fields there. Huge oak trees stand majestically around the outer boundaries of the property, but Andrew tells us that many 200+-year-old trees have come down in (relatively) recent storms.

One large barn has been converted to an auto shop where Andrew’s son repairs chariots and clunkers – even working on Sunday as we noted on our arrival. The other large barn was a primary object of our recon mission, and we were surprised at the amount and variety of wood stored there. Although he said that he was low on flooring at the time, there were still many lengths of recovered flooring on a skid which he identified was already committed to a project in New Brunswick. “More coming soon” he promised. Besides the flooring there were thousands of board feet of wood of various species – primarily softwoods (Andrew says he has little use for hardwoods and offered for $100 a large selection of interesting hardwood pieces collected during some previous excursions – we passed on that offer this time out). We were also impressed by the very large selection of post-and-beam dimensioned materials both inside the barn and outside where some of the beams – recovered from a factory nearby were around 12” x 12” x 20-30 feet and some even larger.

A visit to one final storage area, adjacent to the auto shop, rendered some pieces I was seeking for a project in progress – some greyboard and barnboard that was pretty wet, but nicely weathered and bleached for the work we have in mind. We haggled a little over the price and came to an agreement on a half dozen pieces of barnboard that has since been stacked and stickered in our storage shed for a little primary stabilizing before I bring it in to finish drying.

Brunch Delights

If you are heading out for your own exploration of Andrew’s recovered treasures, or just looking for a nice Sunday morning drive, we would highly recommend a stop at Gerrish and Gray Café in Windsor where we enjoyed a delicious brunch – biscuits and gravy/ poached eggs for me, decadent french toast and bacon for her – and took home a gigantic apple turnover for our dessert! The atmosphere and scrumptious menu will be cause for a regular stop for us in the years to come.

Andrew Bland’s Antiques and Reclaimed Wood
Location and contact coordinates:
745 Oak Island Rd, Avonport
902 542 0977

Gerrish & Gray Café 
134 Gerrish St, Windsor (at the corner of Gray)
902-798-8777 
Also on Facebook