Bewdley, Ontario

Bewdley
compact rural community
Bewdley Location of Bewdley in southern Ontario
Coordinates: 44°05′16″N78°19′17″W / 44.08778°N 78.32139°W / 44.08778; -78.32139 [1]
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
County	Northumberland
Municipality	Hamilton Township
First settled	1794 (1794)
Present name	1833
Elevation	193 m (633 ft)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern Time Zone)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (Eastern Time Zone)
Postal code	K0L 1E0
[1]

6km
3.7miles

HAMILTON

Cold Springs

Precious Corners

Plainville

Bewdley

Camborne

Otonabee River

Lake Ontario

Trent River

Baltimore

Rice Lake

Gores Landing

Harwood

   

Map of Rice Lake and Hamilton Township

Bewdley is a compact rural community in the township municipality of Hamilton, Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada, ^{[1] [2] [3]} with a population of about 650 people.^{[ citation needed ]} The community was founded by William Bancks, whose ancestral home was Bewdley in England. It is located on the western end of Rice Lake about 15 kilometres (9 mi) north of Port Hope. ^{[2] [3]}

History

Bewdley Dock on Rice Lak

The area was inhabited by native settlers before the town's foundation. The first land grant was in 1794 to Nellie Grant, the daughter of a colonial administrator. The early local name for Bewdley was Black's Landing, named for local tavern owner William Black. ^[4] Early on, there were sawmills which drove settlement in the area.

William Bancks came to the area in 1833 and tried to organize the creation of a gentlemen's colony and a sawmill.

The town is known for its monument to Joseph M. Scriven, writer of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus". He preached upon the village streets around the 1860s, and is buried nearby. ^[5]

References

1. "Bewdley". Geographical Names Data Base . Natural Resources Canada . Retrieved 2010-07-05.
2. "Toporama (on-line map and search)". Atlas of Canada . Natural Resources Canada. 12 September 2016. Retrieved 2021-02-13.
3. "Ontario Geonames GIS (on-line map and search)". Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. 2014. Retrieved 2021-02-13.
4. Catharine Traill (1986). Canadian Crusoes: A Tale of the Rice Lake Plains. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 258. ISBN   9780773573413.
5. John Parsons (2000). Where I First Saw the Light: Shearstown and Butlerville and St. Mark's Anglican Church, 1898-1998: a Personal, Spiritual and Temporal Memoir. Grassy Pond Pub. p. 393. ISBN   9780968809600.