Growing Up at Holyrood

Roy Lessels snaps a photo of his youngest adult son Michael, wearing a cap and winter coat, a walking stick clasped firmly in his hand. To Michael’s right is one of two roughly-cut gray stone pillars with crenellated tops, planted at the foot of Holyrood Avenue. The pillars, taller than an average doorway, originally stood guard at the entrance to the Holyrood Estate on Highway 2 (now Lakeshore Road) — the place where Roy Lessels was born.

“The pillars are now in their third location,” says Lessels. He recalls when they once stood a mere few steps away from the highway. As a boy in the late 1930s and early ‘40s, he and his dog Stupie waited beside those pillars — every day. “I was waiting for The Toronto Daily Star truck to deliver our evening paper,” he says. Once delivered, his English springer spaniel carried the newspaper home.

Years earlier, when Roy Lessels’s parents Alice and John (known as Jack) Lessels, arrived at Holyrood in 1929, those same pillars would have been the first glimpse they had of their employer Gordon and Kathleen Lefebvres’ estate. Jack Lessels had been hired as groundskeeper and the couple would live at the estate. Roy Lessels explains that his father’s prior experience as groundskeeper at the Dunnikier Estate in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, made him a good candidate for the Holyrood position. His parents had immigrated to Canada from Scotland in 1924 — first his father, followed by his mother a few months later. They married in Toronto.

Roy Lessels says that his father began his groundskeeper’s position at Holyrood in the same year that the Lefebvres had purchased the estate. Among the Lefebvres many renovations to their house (originally built in 1867 to serve as rectory for St. Jude’s Anglican Church), included an apartment above a newly built three-car garage which served as living quarters for his parents.

The relationship between employer and employee at Holyrood was informal, recalls Roy Lessels. “There was no ‘Mister this’ or ‘Mister that’ — it was just Gordon and Jack.” His mother had fondly called Mrs. Lefebvre “Mrs. L,” which might explain how it came to be that Roy Lessels was born in his parents’ employers’ house. The story goes that when it came time for Alice Lessels to give birth to her first-born child in 1930, Mrs. Lefebvre suggested that she might be more comfortable staying in a guestroom at Holyrood House. She took Mrs. Lefebvre up on the offer.

In November 1931, after Alice and Jack Lessels had lived in Canada for seven years, the Lessels family returned to Scotland for a visit. While in Scotland, says Roy Lessels, he was baptised Jack Roy in the Church of Scotland, and his younger brother Alistair was born. In March of ’32 the family boarded the S.S. Montcalm in Greenock, Scotland and sailed back to Canada, arriving nine days later at Halifax Harbour.

The Lessels family had been living in a gardener’s cottage on the estate since 1931. The Lefebvres had had the cottage built especially for them. The two-bedroom bungalow, with cedar-shingled roof and siding, was built beside an apple orchard with a view of the lake. Roy Lessels recalls that “it could get pretty cold at the cottage in the winter.” In those early years, he says, they depended on their woodstove for heat. On occasion, they would receive help from John Jackson, right-hand man at the Skoog farm across the road. “John was a close family friend and our babysitter from time to time. He would come over to the cottage on cold winter mornings and get the kitchen stove going — the cottage was never locked.” In time, says Lessels, he and his brother took on the job of chopping the firewood after supper. The wood was stacked next to the cottage under a window, and during those dark winter evenings, his father would direct his reading lamp to shine through the window and onto the wood pile. “We would fill the wheelbarrow and place it outside the kitchen door [to be used] for morning stove lighting.” Eventually, they had a propane stove, and a coal furnace that was brought into the cottage in the fall. “Thank God the cottage had water and electricity [for lighting]!” he says. Still, they kept an oil lamp handy just in case the electricity went out.

Childhood friends were mostly from neighbouring properties — the Seal and the Soanes families (Mrs. Soanes was Mrs. Lefebvre’s sister). Also included in the Lessels boys’ circle of friends were groundskeepers’ children from other estates. He remembers enjoying his boyhood activities and outings: the camaraderie of Boy Scouts and Sea Scouts, and attending the Gregory Theatre with his brother and mother, where they saw live performances and films. “Mrs. Gregory sold the tickets — Mr. Gregory took them from patrons.” He recalls the lively “Teen Town” dances held at Victoria Hall on the weekends, where he says, “we would take our own 78 records with us.”

Roy Lessels began his schooling at Westwood Public School. He recalls the long walk to get there and the detour that he and his brother took through a marshy ravine area known as the Kerr Street gully. When he attended Central School, he liked to walk along the old Radial Bridge that stretched from Rebecca Street across the Sixteen Mile Creek. From the bridge, looking south, he had a clear view of the dump on the east side of the creek and Burke’s Auto Wrecking, a salvage yard on the west bank. Later, he attended Oakville High School. In all, he says, “Those were enjoyable days.”

Lessels grew up watching his father take particular care of the estate grounds — a role that went well beyond manicuring its many lawns and gardening its park-like setting. His father also maintained the pool, a red-clay tennis court and greenhouse. When Lessels and his brother were old enough to help out, they assisted their father. He remembers vividly the labour-intensive work.

“In those days” says Lessels, “the pool was filled with lake water.” A filler pipe, extended out into the lake. The diving board, he explains, was made of wood and wrapped in burlap to prevent the diver from slipping. “When draining the pool, you had to follow the receding water with stable brooms to remove any algae. When empty you had to hose the whole pool down. The pool had to be drained and cleaned every couple of weeks!” He adds, “My brother and I helped Dad clean the pool many times.”

“When the Lefebvres owned the property, our family was free to use the pool and tennis court while they were away — and they seemed to be away a lot.” Lessels doesn’t recall this same courtesy extended by the next three owners of Holyrood for whom his father continued to work as groundskeeper until 1954. Still, living at Holyrood had its advantages. “We used to play on the stony beach,” he says, and getting to the beach was part of the fun. He explains that a jagged edge of land along the lakefront had a drop-off about the height of his cottage. It was caused by erosion. To get to the beach below, they climbed down an extension ladder that was propped against the bank. From the beach they could watch the Bank Swallows that burrowed into the upper part of the sandy bank.

During his high school years, Roy Lessels was hired by St. Jude’s Anglican Church to work at the cemetery, conveniently located next to Holyrood Estate. He worked there for two summers. “My jobs were cutting grass, trimming, grave digging and cutting tree roots. All of these chores were done using hand tools.” It was laborious work, but the money he made would serve to achieve his goal: “I got my driver’s license in 1946,” says Lessels. Then he purchased a 1931 Model A Ford. “That was my first car — I bought it from Dad.” When car parts were needed, there was one place he could rely on: Burke’s Auto Wrecking.

Lessels says that during a difficult period for the Lefebvres, his father worked without pay. “Now mind you, we were living in the gardener’s cottage . . . there was no rent.” The estate had a large vegetable garden and a Spy apple orchard. He recalls that his mother did a fair amount of canning during that time. Sometime later, he says, Mr. Lefebvre took him and his brother to Oakville Hardware to pick out bikes. “I guess that was a thank you to Dad.”

When Holyrood was sold in 1945, says Roy Lessels, his father worked for the new owner and the Lessels family continued to live at the cottage. Still, he remembers that it had been a difficult period for his mother when it came time for Mrs. Lefebvre to leave. “They were very close — mind you, they were still employer and employee.” Just before the Lefebvre family moved, Mrs. Lefebvre gave his mother a painting made from an etched copper plate that had hung on the wall of Holyrood house. It’s a painting that Roy Lessels still cherishes today.

Lessels considers his family fortunate to have lived the life they had at Holyrood, and credits one employer above the others: “The Lefebvres were very good to our family — very good.”