Newcastle is a community in the municipality of Clarington in Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. The community inherits the former name of the present-day municipality which it belongs to.
Newcastle is located about 80 km east of Toronto, and about 18 km east of Oshawa and Bowmanville on Highway 401. It is also the southern terminus of Highway 35 and Highway 115. It has been named one of the best small towns in Ontario, by Comfort Life, a website for retirement living in Canada.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
History
Newcastle was incorporated as a town in 1856. It remained a small community until the 1990s, when new residential development began and the population quickly swelled. Newcastle had a jail in the late 1800s. Maps of Newcastle from those years have not been discovered. Many have tried to find the location of this jail, but it is believed that it was either demolished or destroyed by the elements. There are jail cells in the Newcastle Community Hall.
Newcastle is surrounded by farms raising cattle, pigs, apples, grain, and corn. The town has a beautiful community hall, donated by the Massey family, one public high school (Clarke), two public elementary schools (Newcastle Public School and The Pines Senior Public School), one Catholic elementary school (St. Francis of Assisi), a post office, churches, a few plazas, several small parks, six restaurants, Tim Hortons, a recreation complex, an ice arena, a new fire hall, two grocery stores ( Foodland and No Frills), professional offices, hardware stores, a marina on Lake Ontario, and a golf course (Newcastle Golf Course).
Post office history
The first Post office was opened in Newcastle in 1845 with John Short serving as Postmaster. Since 1845, there had been a total of 10 Postmasters in the village - Charles Gray being the last in 1991. With Gray's retirement Canada Post closed the Post office in accordance with its policy then to close many of the smaller Post offices. The Guardian Drug Store initiallygot the franchise to handle the retail mail business for the town, but this is now run by Shopper's Drugmart. Rural Route and Suburban Mail for the residents is now handled out of the Bowmanville Post office.
Notable individuals
- Joseph E. Atkinson (December 23, 1865 - May 7, 1948) was a Canadian newspaper editor and activist. Under his leadership the Toronto Star became one of the largest and most influential newspapers in Canada.
- Daniel Massey, whose farm implement business eventually formed Massey-Ferguson.
- Early settlers using sticks and spears could catch as many as 100000 salmon in one night from streams running into Lake Ontario. One man who had a great influence on the village was Samuel Wilmot. He became interested in the salmon as early as 1860 and built a "fish hatchery" at Newcastle - one of the world's first. Wilmot would eventually become head of fisheries for Canada, and in the 1890s he was running a small generating station which supplied Newcastle with its first electrical power - from sunset until about 12:00 midnight.
- Louis G. Lalande (March 11, 1935 - ) is a retired pipefitter and community volunteer. In 1999, while manning a booth for the Knights of Columbus' annual charity raffle near a bank at a mall in Oshawa, he foiled a bank robbery by striking the assailant about the head and shoulders with a metal folding chair. The pistol the assailant was brandishing at the time turned out to be a starting pistol, but this was unknown to Lalande and the bank's occupants at the time. Lalande was subsequently awarded the Medal of Bravery, and the Carnegie Medal for Heroism.
- The 1980s rock band Chalk Circle was formed in the village. They had hits in Canada with songs like April Fool, Me, Myself and I and Sons and Daughters, a song about the negative effects of free trade with the USA.
- A member of Canada women's national ice hockey team, Tara Watchorn, won the gold medal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
- Susan Kane Doyle, Author of the Nationally Award Winning book, Cooking Wild Style, and long time cooking editor of Ontario Out of Doors, winner of the Pete McGillen Award also lives in the village.
- Charles Brent- Bishop of the Episcopal Church, born in Newcastle in 1862.
Town of Newcastle, 1973-94
The name "Town of Newcastle" was used from 1973-94 for the municipality now called the Municipality of Clarington. The name was changed in 1994 to alleviate long standing confusion between the municipality as a whole and the community of the same name. The community was commonly known as "Newcastle Village" to distinguish the two. It was also a confusing fact that Bowmanville had a larger population than "Newcastle Village", and it also housed the former Town of Newcastle's municipal offices, causing some to believe the town should have been called "Bowmanville" instead of "Newcastle" during that period.
Popular attractions
- Docville Wild West Park is a mock wild west town that offers its use to moviemakers and other paid visitors.
- The Newcastle Santa Claus Parade held on a Sunday evening each November began in 2005.
- Allin's Orchard & Country Market is an Apple farm which has been supplying produce since the early 1900s.
- Algoma Orchards has moved from Whitby to Hwy 2,west of Newcastle in 2009. A large packing and storage facility was built and a retail store including a bakery is part of the large complex.
- Shoppers Drug Mart store was built on the main south-east corner of the village in 2010-2011. This location housed many businesses over the last 100-150 including groceries, flower shop, furniture, bakery, woman's dress shop, offices and apartments on the 2nd and 3rd floors. The complete building was torn down and a house behind it to create the new complex in summer of 2010. The demolition was wildly unpopular with residents. The new complex houses the pharmacy, cosmetics, grocery items and other drug store items as well as the post office. Shopper's was at a different location in town previously to the move.
- Rona hardware store was a tenant on the main south-west corner for many years and moved south to Toronto St. in 2009. They had also opened up a Lumber Center in September 2012. The site on King Street was vacant until July 2011 when a Home Hardware store opened.
- A Gift of Art is a not-for-profit art gallery, shop, and teaching/events facility featuring the work of local artists. A Gift of Art displays work from artists in a variety of media, including paintings, pottery, woodcarving, photography, music, and much more.
Nearest places
- Newtonville, east
- Orono, north
- Bowmanville, west
- Bondhead, south
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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