Barrel Churn c. 1900, Gift of the Bell Homestead, Brantford, 1996 Barrel churns could be found on nearly every farm at the turn of the century, when the production of butter was a part of every farm routine. Farm butter was sold to the general store keeper or taken to the nearest market town. Even by 1900, a certain amount of butter was still collected by provision dealers from general stores in the countryside for sale in larger communities or for export. The barrel churn was a great improvement over the earlier dash churn. Now, instead of laboriously working the butter, one simply pushed the handle of the new churn back and forth causing the barrel to rotate. Barrel churns often had a foot treadle attached as well. This churn was produced by the London and Petrolia Barrel Company, one of London's oldest industries. The present-day Accuride plant can trace its beginnings back to this company. The company was established on Little Simcoe Street in the 1880s to make barrels for the oil refineries in East London. Later, the plant supplied brewers, meat packers and even the BC whaling industry, among others. In the 1950s, the company became a licensee of Firestone Steel of Akron, Ohio for the manufacture of stainless steel beer barrels. In 1968, Firestone itself moved into Canada and built a new plant just off Clark Road in East London. Heavy wheel rim production was already a large part of the plant's output by 1986, when Accuride Canada bought the plant. Now, what was once a barrel company turns out thousands of rims for truck plants all over North America.