A capstan on a threshing machine was used in 1913 to pull a water line from Sea Island to Lulu Island, inspiring the name of the area: Capstan Village.
The machine was owned and operated by Richmond pioneer Royal Phillip Ketcheson, according to the City of Richmond Archives.
The capstan was the centre piece on the threshing machine, which was turned by horses harnessed to spokes attached to it.
Capstans were also widely used on boats.
This 1913 water line was replaced by a wooden one in about 1925, suspended from the bridge connecting the two islands.
In 1937, a new pipe was needed as the wooden one had weakened from traffic vibration on the bridge.
The new pipe along the bottom of the Fraser - in about the same spot as the 1913 one - was pulled from Sea Island to the foot of what was once called Ketcheson’s Lane.
The local paper declared the water main connection from Sea Island to Lulu Island in 1937 to be “an engineering feat which has never before been tried in British Columbia.”
The job was done by Charlie Jones, Richmond’s “genial water superintendent,” explained the Marpole-Richmond Review on Oct. 6, 1937 on its front page.
The paper describes how a “donkey engine” pulled the pipe across the Middle Arm of the Fraser River, taking 25 “anxious” minutes, arriving at the end of Ketcheson Lane. The story continues to explain the pipe was pulled across “without a break.”
The river had been dredged to “provide an even trough in which to lay the pipe.”
The cost to lay down the pipe was about $4,600.
In 1937, the name Ketchson Lane was no longer in use, although it’s noted in the Marpole-Richmond Review article.
In 1931, a council decision changed the name of the road, which was called three different names at that time – Ketcheson Lane, Rorison Road and Sturdy Road – declaring it in its entirety as “Bridgeport Road.” Part of the area had previously been called Bridgeport Townsite.
Since then, a new street in the Capstan area has been given the name Ketcheson Road.
What’s now called “Capstan Village” in the City of Richmond’s planning documents is traditional Musqueam territory.
When Europeans arrived, it became a mixed use area with dairy and vegetable farming, and industrial, for example, wood and aluminum manufacturing.
