About Us

The Canadian Industrial Heritage Centre was born of the Cockshutt Homecoming Festival and Exhibition, held in Brantford, Ontario at Cockshutt Park in June of 2000. As part of the Millennium Celebrations, over 6500 people travelled from all over Canada, the US and beyond, to come together and celebrate a once proud history of manufacturing - the Cockshutt Plow Company. There were 112 pieces of farm equipment including tractors, combines, manure spreaders,  walking and riding plows all built by Cockshutt at the show. In addition to this over 600 past employees met for a chicken BBQ dinner on the Saturday evening, and many more visited all day long with long lost friends in the chat tent. The nearby school gymnasium was filled with memorabilia, literature, artefacts, model tractors, documents and more. Local heritage organizations offered displays, and a craft and artisan show offered quality goods for sale. A city bus toured folks to local historical sites of interest including, the Bell Homestead, home of Alexander Graham Bell, (where the concept of the telphone was invented), the former Cockshutt Estate (Lynnore) a 22 acre estate with mansion, the Brant County museum, and Farringdon Church where the Cockshutt founder and family are buried. But the most popular stop was the old factory site at 66 Mohawk Street. A now derelict building that has a great story to tell. (See photo gallery)

The architecture of the building (built in 1903) is amazing, and for now it is the only one left standing on the Cockshutt site. In 2001, our organization proposed to use it for a museum for our industrial heritage, and took steps to have the building designated a heritage site. However, the roof was leaking and it had been sadly neglected by an absentee landlord who had not paid any taxes for many years. We formed a steering committee to develop the concept and in an unprecedented move, we were able to convince the councillors to vote unanimously to designate the building, saving it from the wrecking ball. A controversial site to say the least, it sits on the biggest brownfield in Brantford.

In our attempt to gather members, and dollars, we joined forces with two other organizations, the Brant Historical Society/Brant Museum & Archives and the Brant County Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. We finally obtained a grant from Trillium funding to conduct a feasibility study to determine if a Heritage Complex could in fact be built in Brantford. This would be a state of the art centre that housed various partners and shared exhibits, programs and archives that would tell the story of the history of Brantford, cultural, social and industrial.

The results of that study determined that in fact it could be done with the right political will and funding. The final document is titled A Ribbon Through Time.