Month: April 2026

Two pages from the County Line Elementary Scrapbook - Christmas 1974 and 1975

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Today is the conclusion of the Charles Richards family. Charles and Elizabeth's youngest son Alfred seems to have lived a very quiet life. He moved to Burnaby with his mother after the death of Charles, marrying Dora Dixie in 1935. Alfred and Dora moved out to White Rock, living near the western end of Marine Drive. Dora passed away in 1978 and Alfred moved to an apartment on Martin Street. He passed away in 1983.

Charles’ eldest son Charles Vernon did not come with the family to Canada, opting to remain in England. Through various documents – census returns, passenger lists, voter lists & news items, I was able to learn a fair bit about him. He and Frederick lived for a time in Melbourne, Missouri, New Jersey, Jamaica, Bermuda & Menorca and held various jobs including commercial photographer, merchandise shipper & secretary. Charles never visited his family in Canada …

Welcome to Part 2 of the Charles Richards story. From published newspaper accounts, we know the Richards family was living in Aldergrove prior to September 1912. We also know that Charles Richard was a petitioner for & a charter member of the Aldergrove Farmers' Institute & was responsible for hiring the AFI Store Manager. Despite the feature article about the Richards men during the war, I have thus far only found proof of 2 of Charles' 5 sons serving in the armed forces.

When war broke out, both Reginald & Cecil enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force & served overseas. Charles & Elizabeth received notification at the end of December 1917 that Reginald had died of wounds received in November - to then find out that the army had made a mistake, he actually lived & returned to active duty, only to receive more wounds a few months later. Reginald …

Something I bet no one has on their “Aldergrove History” bingo card: A former Scotland Yard inspector & his family living on a farm near the former Jackman BCER station who was also a charter member of the Aldergrove Farmers’ Institute. Here is Part 1 of the story, which is rifled with very deep rabbit holes.

Charles Richards was born in June 1856 in Staplehurst, England. He joined the Metropolitan Police in 1875 & married his 1st wife, Harriet, in 1885. Their son Charles Vernon was born in October 1886. Sadly, Harriet died in 1887. Charles then married Elizabeth Farrer in 1889 & they had 4 sons: Thomas (1891), Cecil (1892), Reginald (1898) & Alfred (1904).

In 1895, Charles was the arresting officer of Oscar Wilde at London’s Cadogan Hotel, but this was not his only famous case. Early in his career he came face to face with master of …

Happy 153rd birthday to the Township of Langley 🎂

Today we've got coverage of the formation of the Township - first was the 1872 announcement that the Yale Road was finally under construction - and here we are 154 years later with the SkyTrain being built along the (mostly) same corridor. Then came the proclamation of The Langley Fence District in January 1873 (should anyone want to read the 1869 Fencing Ordinance, I can post it in the comments if requested) and finally on 26 April 1873, Langley was declared a municipality.

This was followed by the first call for an election, the first election results, the first time a Langley politician's name was spelled wrong by the press and the first council meeting. Incidentally, 19 years later was the first time some of the residents of Aldergrove tried to separate from Langley Township.

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Two sports pages from the County Line Elementary School scrapbook.

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Your weekly community events calendar, brought to you by the volunteers at Alder Grove Heritage Society.

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I came across this nice feature article that was written about Norm Green when he retired from teaching in 1980, so I put together a few other articles including his obituary. I wasn't in Mr. Green's Grade 5 class at Aldergrove Elementary, but I remember he visited student gardens as part of his judging duties for the Aldergrove Agricultural Association Fall Fair. Here is the story that was published in The Place Between:

County Line 1951 - GREEN, Norman & Margaret (Kellett) – written by Connie Petersen for The Place Between Volume 2

Norman & Margaret settled on County Line North in 1951, with Norman becoming principal of County Line School from 1951-1957, when the school was only 4 rooms. When he first arrived in the District, Norman didn't own a car. As he lived only a short distance from the school, he overcame this problem by walking.

Norman was …

Are you one of the Cubs in this December 1970 photo?

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Before my time at Aldergrove Elementary, perhaps dissecting chickens was no longer in the curriculum for Grade 6....

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The article on the left is a rabbit hole creator, not because it tells how many were stationed at each base, but because of the other bases in BC that I didn't know about. This happens when the primary focus of your research is your local community. 😉

The article on the right shows how having a military base in town can be good for the community, it can also have an adverse, unintended effect.

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Two more pages of Sports Day coverage from the County Line Elementary scrapbook.

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Sports Day 1977 at County Line Elementary.

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Another recently scanned treasure is a collection of pages from the family photo album of Vivian (Gillett) Cooper. Vivian was the daughter of Thomas Gillett and Meg Wight, which made her niece to Aldergrove's first telephone agent/operator Nan Gillett. This page is one of about twelve; not all of the pages are as well labelled as the photo on the top left, but they do give a glimpse into life in Aldergrove around 1910-1925.

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Fundraisers Food Entertainment Education and helping the Environment. Lots of things to get out and be part of in #ourcommunity.

#makesomememories #supportlocal #takelotsofphotos #visityourmuseum

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A photo of the Aldergrove Presbyterian Church's Ladies Aid group taken during war time. At least one of the ladies is working on a pair of socks.

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Here is another image from the Rossiter file. According to the publisher style, this post card's publication date would be between 1924 and 1949. The accession number (H99119-C) is of no help because the only information on the donation form is "Laura Rossiter (dead) photos of her life". Nor do we know who Ruth is or how Laura knew her.

In the early years of AGHS, almost everything received the "Property of" stamp, a practice which was thankfully stopped over time, especially as whomever was doing the stamping didn't let the ink dry before placing another stamped image on top and we have lots of images with ink transfer. Thankfully the majority were reproductions and not originals.

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The Rossiter home once stood at 3781 264 Street, just north of Robertson Crescent. Being on part of the Base property, the government burned the house down in 1969.

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Two 1977 photos from our military file of PO Olsen and PO Charpentier.

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Something that drives us rather batty - we find photocopies (usually really bad photocopies) of photos, and we can see that a negative (12A) was made of the original photo, but...

The negatives were not filed in negative strip holders/pages. The negatives were not in any type of file specifically for negatives. The negatives were not kept in strips, they were cut into individual negatives. They might be in an envelope with a reproduction of the photo. They might be in a school folder. They might be in a family folder. They might be in a little plastic sleeve stapled to an information sheet. There are multiple negatives with the same number. We have come to learn that the "NIB" notation means "not in book", which translates to it's not in either volume of The Place Between, which means it's not in the book photo files. So, long story short...no, …

Today is the last day of the Bradner Flower Show, so we're checking in to see how the community was doing in 1915 and 1921.

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It takes a special kind of human to want to be a teacher (and we are very grateful for them all). Mr. Angrignon spent 41 years in the profession, retiring in 1977.

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So many upcoming events that support great causes! Check to see if tickets or pre-registration are needed if you plan to attend any of them. Plus, there was an exciting scholarship announcement this week by @aldergrovecm (Aldergrove Community Market) check out their page here on Facebook or on Instagram for complete details.

#makesomememories #takelotsofphotos #supportlocal #ourcommunity #storiesmatter #localhistory

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Back to school, 1967. Teacher changes and stats, and helping your little ones settle into school.

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