Description of Historic Place

The Roland Chippett Stage is a wooden, single-storey, pitched roof, vernacular building of nailed timber construction. It is perched on wooden posts at the rocky oceanside in Leading Tickles located in the area at the end of town known as Sunny Side. The municipal heritage designation is confined to the footprint of the stage structure.

Heritage Value

The Roland Chippett Stage has been designated because it has cultural and aesthetic values.

Roland Chippett Stage has cultural value due to its connection to the fishing industry in Leading Tickles, a community whose economy has traditionally been based on fishing and lumbering. Roland Chippett built it approximately fifty years ago, and it was used for splitting and storing fish.

Roland Chippett Stage has aesthetic value as its vernacular style and basic materials are typical of many traditional fishing stages perched between the edge of the land and the Atlantic Ocean. The single-storey stage has a simple, rectangular layout and unadorned, utilitarian design befitting its function. It is entirely constructed of wood: narrow clapboard siding with vertical cornerboards, a mid-pitch roof sheathed in felt, a foundation of posts and cribbing, and wooden doors of narrow vertical boards. A small, window-like opening in the front gable end allows light into the space above the fish splitting table inside. The stage contributes to the landscape of Leading Tickles, offering a visual clue to the culture of the community.

Source: Town of Leading Tickles Council Meeting Minutes of 2007/03/05

Character-Defining Elements

All those exterior elements relating to the fishing function of the building, its age and its vernacular nature:

- nailed timber construction;
- height, dimensions and one-storey construction;
- wood post foundation;
- mid-pitched roof;
- original roofing material;
- narrow horizontal clapboard and wooden cornerboards;
- opening in front gable end;
- type, location, materials and dimensions of doors;
- off-centre placement of gable end door;
- and oceanside location.