As much as Lucy Maud Montgomery is associated with Prince Edward Island, she is also part of Norval.

She lived just beyond the Peel border from 1926 to 1935, writing six books and contributing to a seventh, while her husband preached at the Norval Presbyterian Church.

While Norval is within Halton, many Peel residents in that area would use it as their hub, including attending her husband’s services. Lucy undoubtedly knew many residents of what in 1974 became Brampton.

After Montgomery died in Toronto in 1943, her eldest son began removing a large amount of material from the house. The son had separated from his wife, which officially had removed him from her will. Locks were changed, and eventually some of the items were put up for auction.

One chest she owned — a blanket box — made its way to the Peel Museum and Art Gallery (now the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives) in 1973.

We have no record of who donated it to the museum, but they made an interesting choice. Montgomery’s most known book, Anne of Green Gables, includes the following passage:

When Anne got home that night she stacked all her textbooks away in an old trunk in the attic, locked it, and threw the key into the blanket box.

“I’m not even going to look at a school book in vacation,” she told Marilla.

Over 100 pages of Mary Henley Rubio’s 2008 biography Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings are dedicated to this era of Montgomery’s life. While there were extensive troubles during the family’s years at Norval, she would later write, “I have never felt such anguish on leaving any place, not even the old Cavendish home.”

The Historic Bovaird House is hosting an Anne of Green Gables-themed event on Sunday, June 24, from noon to 3 p.m., in celebration of the 110th anniversary of the book Anne of Green Gables.