Barbara Raue

Wingham and Blyth Ontario in Colour Photos Barbara Raue

WinghamIn the early 1850s, settlers began moving into the townships in the Queen's Bush north of the Huron Tract. One of these townships, Turnberry, was surveyed by 1853 and a plot for a market town was designated where two branches of the Maitland River met. Among the earliest settlers on the plot was John Cornyn who was operating a hotel here in 1861. A year later a post office named Wingham was established and by 1866 Wingham had become a prominent supply and distributing centre for the agricultural and lumbering area. In the 1870s railway expansion stimulated growth and led to Wingham's incorporation as a village in 1874 with a population of 700. Five years later with a population of 2000, Wingham was incorporated as a town. Wingham, located in Huron County at the intersection of County Roads 4 & 86, became part of North Huron municipality in 2001 when the former township of East Wawanosh, the village of Blyth, and the town of Wingham were amalgamated. BlythBlyth is located southwest of the town of Wingham on Huron Road 4, and geographically south of the town of Lucknow. The community was founded in 1877 and amalgamated into North Huron in 2001. Many of its buildings still retain a Cape Dutch style of detailing that was popular after the Boer War. Blyth is the center for the nationally acclaimed theatre, the Blyth Festival which, since its inception in 1975, has premiered 121 Canadian plays. Plays developed at the Blyth Festival have won Governor General's Awards and a number of Chalmers Awards. It plays to audiences of between forty and fifty thousand annually.