Ice and beer for Charlottetown: East Royalty looks back on its history

Now a residential neighbourhood in Charlottetown, East Royalty will hold an event this weekend to look back on its past as a production centre.

Wright's Creek was a big part of that heritage. There were grist mills, some three or four storeys tall, and the ice cut from the mill ponds in the winter was a major part of the supply for ice boxes in Charlottetown into the 1950s.

"All of that's gone now," said Charlottetown city historian Natalie Munn.

"It was used for a very long time."

East Royalty was amalgamated with Charlottetown in 1995.

A brewery in 1810

East Royalty may also have been home to P.E.I.'s first commercial brewery.

John and Mary Cambridge opened a brewery around 1810. It burned down in 1827, but Munn said it was never a big success.

"They had a few problems getting it going, because of hops the quality of the hops," she said.

Buried treasure

Probably the oldest story connected to East Royalty are the rumours that Captain William Kidd, who was executed for piracy in 1701, buried treasure somewhere near the end of Heartz Road, near the Hillsborough River.

There were a number of attempts to recover the treasure in the 1940s. Drill samples brought up bits of wood and metal, but attempts to recover anything of value always failed due to water rushing into the hole.

The display of photographs and artifacts celebrating East Royalty's history will be held at Malcolm Darrach Centre on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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