Barbara Raue

Wingham Ontario and Area in Colour Photos Barbara Raue

Wingham is located in the municipality of North Huron in Huron County. Wingham became part of North Huron in 2001 when the Ontario government imposed amalgamation on the former township of East Wawanosh, the village of Blyth, and the town of Wingham. Wingham is located where two branches of the Maitland River converge. County Road 86 connects to Kitchener-Waterloo to the east; the main thoroughfare is County Road 4, called Josephine Street within Wingham, and connects to London, Ontario to the south. Wingham became a prominent supply and distribution centre for the agricultural and lumbering hinterland. Railway expansion in the 1870s stimulated further growth. Wingham has three radio stations and a television station. The Township of Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh is a municipality in the northwest corner of Huron County. It was formed as an amalgamation of the former Ashfield, Colborne and West Wawanosh townships in 2001. The three former townships now comprise the wards of the amalgamated municipality. Lake Huron is the western boundary and the Township has more than thirty-five kilometers of Lake Huron shoreline. Its southern boundary is the Maitland River between Goderich and Auburn. The eastern border is Huron Road 22, from Auburn north to Huron Road 86 near Whitechurch. Huron Road 86 is generally the northern border of Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh except for the Lucknow community limits which are in Bruce County. The township encompasses the communities of Amberley, Auburn, Benmiller, Carlow, Dungannon, Kingsbridge, Kintail, Nile, Port Albert, St. Augustine, St. Helens and Saltford. By 1869, Belgrave was a village with a population of 50 in the Township of Morris County, Huron. It was established on the Maitland River. It was a stop on the Buffalo and Lake Huron Railway. There were stages to Wingham Teeswater Riversdale and Kincardine. The average price of land was $20. By 1851, Lucius McConnell and Kenneth McBain were two of the earliest settlers in Morris Township. Four years later, Donald McDonald laid out a village plot on the border between Wawanosh and Morris Townships and the village of Blyth developed. By 1858, the village had a post office, sawmill, Presbyterian Church, a tavern and a store. A station on the London, Huron and Bruce Railway was opened here in 1876.