Peel Scenic Drive
A trip through Peel's twisty back roads from Brampton to Alton
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Starting the trip-Brampton Leave Brampton going west along Queen Street. In 1880, a school stood at the northwest corner of Chinguacousy Road. Chinguacousy (pronounced Chin-COO-zee) Road was named after the former township, parts of which were incorporated into the City of Brampton in 1974. The name is supposed to mean Land of Tall Pines. The school, SS5, built in 1874, is still there. It was a one-room schoolhouse and it still is, except that now it is one classroom in a Montessori school. Modern extensions to the old schoolhouse make up most of the new school. The old schoolhouse has been brought up to modern building standards and the old pot-belly stove has long gone but it is nice to see that the old building still has a role in providing an education for young children.
Further on is the former community of Springbrook, which in 1880 was large enough to support two churches: one on the northwest corner and one on the southeast corner. Both have disappeared. At the traffic lights at Mississauga Road, turn left toward Huttonville. In 1848, Ralph Brown built a small lumber mill in the area known as Wolf's Den on the south side of the Credit River. Seven years later, in 1855, Joseph P. Hutton bought the mill from Brown. Hutton then named the area Huttonville. Hutton was born in Niagara of Scottish parents who immigrated to Canada in 1819. He arrived in Chinguacousy Township in 1831. As you drive down the hill toward the traffic lights in Huttonville, you may be able to see the old McMurchy Mill on the right in the trees on the far side of the bridge across the Credit River. At the lights, turn right onto Embleton Road. As you turn, you will go past an old store/house on the right, on the northwest corner of the intersection. This building was built as a house by John Mino in 1855, when he moved here to work in Hutton's sawmill, which was located on land behind his house.
About 50 metres along Embleton Road, turn right into Mill Lane. Park and walk down to where the lane bends right. In front of you as you face the river is an old building. This is the hydro-electric power house built by J P Hutton to power his mills. To your right, down the lane, is the old McMurchy Mill. This was actually one of JP Hutton's mills. His son, JO Hutton, sold it to John McMurchy in 1887. McMurchy leased the power house at the same time, eventually buying it in 1903. The power house supplied electricity to Brampton until 1912 and to the McMurchy Mill until 1953, when it closed.
Return to Embleton Road and turn right. Further up the road, the white house on the right, number 2072, is the old Hutton house.
Drive past the school at the top of the hill. This building is the fourth to house the school and was built in 1938 to replace an older building that used to be further along on the right. The first school in the area was at Centreville at the junction of Embleton Road and Winston Churchill Blvd. This was not central enough, being right on the border with Halton Township. It was replaced about 1855 with SS Number 1, a brick building heated by a small box stove and located at the northeast corner of Embleton Road and Fifth Line. The land was leased from James Ostrander for 25 cents a year. Perhaps the rent was too high because it was replaced by a third school in 1876, built across the road on the northwest corner of the intersection. This school was built on land donated by James Black and had a hot-air furnace. It lasted until 1936, when it burned down. At the traffic lights at Winston Churchill Blvd, in the former Centreville, turn right toward Norval. Just before you reach Norval, the road swings to the left. The property on the left once belonged to Peter Adamson and later Robert Noble, owners of the mill in Norval. The road then swings right again to descend into the village along Adamson Street, named after the former general of the Portuguese Army. Norval is still a quaint village just outside Georgetown but so-called progress is catching up and it is a matter of time before the village is swallowed by urban sprawl. James McNab was a veteran of the War of 1812 and had fought in the Battle of Queenston Heights, where Sir Isaac Brock had died heroically. In return for his service, he was given land in what is now Norval. He settled here in 1820 and built a mill in 1828 near where Highway 7 crosses the Credit River. Lt. Col Peter Adamson bought this mill in 1838. Adamson was a veteran of the Peninsular War, fighting under the Duke of Wellington in Spain. The mill eventually ended up in the hands of Robert Noble in 1868. It remained a flour mill for another fifty years. By 1877, the village had Noble's large mill, a carriage factory, two blacksmith's shops, a harness shop, a general store, a grocer's store, two boot and shoe stores, and two hotels. Drive down Adamson Street (Winston Churchill Blvd.) to the traffic lights in Norval. The small building on the southeast corner was once the site of the Metropolitan Bank. Across the street on the southwest corner was once the general store mentioned in 1877, the Barnhill Store.
Turn right onto Highway 7 and then turn left into McNab Park. This park is part of the site of McNab's (later Robert Noble's) mill. The remainder of the site is under the pavement of Highway 7. The park is located next to the Credit River and is a delightful place for a picnic. You can buy supplies from the nearby general store, which is on the site of the old Hollywood Hotel, one of the hotels of 1877. On leaving the park, turn right onto Highway 7 and drive back across the lights at Adamson Street (Winston Churchill Blvd.) toward Georgetown. The large church at the corner of Draper Street is the church where Lucy Maud Montgomery's husband Ewan Macdonald preached from 1926. Turn right onto Draper Street. The manse for the church is the first house on the right. In this house, Lucy wrote five novels, among them Emily's Quest, Magic for Marigold, and Pat of Silver Bush.
Turn around and drive back along Draper Street. Turn left onto Highway 7, and then turn left onto Winston Churchill Blvd. Drive north past the river on the right. At Regional Road 9, turn right toward Terra Cotta. The land on the north side of the river at Terra Cotta was granted to Joseph Kenny in 1822. In 1855, Henry Tucker bought 40 acres of that land, had it surveyed, and sold village lots. Four years later, a widow, Elizabeth Plewes (pronounced PLOO-wez), arrived from Acton and bought several village lots. Her son, Simon, bought the water rights and operated two mills in the village. Simon had previously run the mill at Acton with his father and brother since 1850. The village came to be known first as Plewes' Mills and then, by 1866, Salmonville, because of the salmon that used to be plentiful here. Those were the days. Drive through the village along Mill Street. At the foot of Isabella Street is the famous Terra Cotta Inn restaurant. It had been a store and a barber shop before it was bought by Betty and Harry Farrar, who converted it into the Inn. The Inn burned down in 1975 but was rebuilt and expanded. Further along is High Street. The first house on the left past High Street is the Plewes House. This house was built in the early 1860s and had ten rooms. On the ground floor were a kitchen, dining room, living room, parlour, scullery/laundry, and bedroom. As in European houses even today, the parlour was for receiving visitors and was never used by the family. Upstairs were another four bedrooms. There was an outside privy consisting of a seat and a bucket. Just past the house, on the right side of the road, was Simon Plewes' gristmill. To see the house best, drive past High Street and park just after the guardrail ends on the right side of the road. Then walk back toward High Street. To see the what's left of the mill, look through the mesh fence near the end of the guardrail. The narrow creek is the millrace for the mill. All that's left of the mill is the concrete chute.
Drive along Mill Street and turn left at the traffic lights onto Mississauga Road. As you drive north on Mississauga Road, you pass the remains of the brick plant on the left. The brick plant opened in 1914 and closed in 1958. Turn right on Mill Street toward Cheltenham. Cheltenham's founder, Charles Haines, named the area after his hometown in Gloucestershire, England. A millwright by trade, he arrived here in 1820 and began clearing the land south of the Credit River. In 1828 he built a gristmill. This log mill was replaced in 1847 by a frame mill and remained in operation until 1945, when it was destroyed by fire.
Follow the road as it swings right, down to the river. Park and walk to the river. If you look across the river, you will see Charles Haines' sawmill. He built this wood-framed mill in 1847 when he replaced his gristmill. If you then turn left and walk along the riverbank, you will come to a shed. On the riverbank near the shed are the remains of the dam for the gristmill. There is still a weir but originally the dam was much higher. Where you are standing is where Haines' gristmill stood until 1945. It was similar to the sawmill and had three runs of stones. Return to your car and continue along Mill Street. At the end, turn left onto Creditview Road. The second building on the left is still the general store. Next door is a realty agency; this was once Henry's Hotel. The store and the hotel are not the original buildings; these were destroyed by fire in 1887 and rebuilt. Across the road are two interesting and original old buildings.
Set back from the road is a large barn next to a house. The large barn is the 1884 Beaver Hall, which used to be the village hall. Now a little worse for wear, it still has a strip-wood ceiling and a stage. Just behind the wall behind the stage is a workshop where tiles were made. The outside of the barn is covered in rusting metal sheeting made from metal cigarette boxes that have been flattened and nailed to the side of the barn. The house next to the barn looks recent but the end furthest from the barn is older than the barn. This was the original house built by the Fraser or Frazier family before 1870, perhaps as early as the 1840s. The dormers are original but, of course, the windows have been replaced. The front door has been brought forward to line up with the dormers. On the other side of the road, at 14404 Creditview, is a small wooden house that was formerly an Orange Hall and a Women's Institute. Next door to that was the blacksmith's shop, built before 1850. Carry on along Creditview Road until you reach Boston Mills Road. Turn right. Just after you cross the railway lines, at the intersection of Boston Mills Road and Chinguacousy Road, you will be in Boston Mills. In the 1880s, Boston Mills was known simply as Boston. Two railways straddled the community: the Hamilton and Northwest Railway arrived in 1874, passing the community on the west side; the Credit Valley Railway arrived in 1877, passing on the east side. The Hamilton and Northwest Railway is now a hiking trail and the Credit Valley Railway is now the Orangeville Brampton Railway, its station long gone. Turn left onto Chinguacousy Road. The site of the actual Boston Mills is on the right. When Hiram Caslor built the first mill, he had the name Boston Mills painted on the side of the building where it could be seen for miles, and eventually the place became known as Boston Mills. On the left are the gates of the cemetery. Just beyond the gates was the location of the hotel in the heyday of the community about 1870. Further along on the right is an old house, formerly the house belonging to the miller.
Drive to Olde Baseline Road, then turn right. Although you will be going to Inglewood, drive past McLaughlin Road and, at the top of the hill, turn left onto Maple Avenue. Drive down Maple Avenue until the road takes a sharp turn left. Just at that point, look right down the lane on the right. The building at the end is the Riverdale Woollen Mill.
Though the area was settled in the 1830s, it wasn't until Thomas Corbett bought lots on the Credit River that the population started to grow. In 1843, Corbett built a small woollen mill here, near the junction of what is now Olde Baseline Road and McLaughlin Road. At that time, the area was known as Riverdale. David Graham bought the mill from Thomas Corbett, his father-in-law, in 1871 and started Riverdale Woollen Mills. In 1880, the mill was well known for its cloth, flannel, blankets, underwear, and yard goods. Continue along Maple Avenue until you reach McLaughlin Road, then turn right. Drive to Inglewood. On the left side of the road is a general store. The left section is a brick building that was the hotel opened in 1877 by William Linfoot.
About halfway through the village, two sets of railway lines once crossed each other. One set of lines, belonging to the Hamilton and Northwest Railway, has been removed and the former rail bed is now a hiking trail. The other set of lines, formerly belonging to the Credit Valley Railway, is still there. Between the sets of lines on the left side of the road was the location of the railway station. In 1877, with the opening of the Credit Valley Railway, a major brouhaha erupted. The village now had two railway lines. So it made sense to have one station at the intersection. But what was it to be called? A recommendation was made to name it Sligo Junction. A post office named Sligo had opened in 1853 nearby. The recommended name met severe opposition from people who wanted it to be called Riverdale and the matter was referred to the local MP, the Hon. Thomas White, member of Sir John A. McDonald's cabinet. He chose the name Inglewood after a place in England. On the left, just past the railway lines, is McKenzie Street. Near the corner is a building dated 1886. This building housed the general store opened by George Merry in that year. Next door, to the left, was Merry's bakery, which opened at the same time.
At the Grange Sideroad, turn left. At the railway bridge, where the Credit Valley Railway began its climb to the trestle over the Credit River, the road bends right and is unpaved. Drive along this tree-lined road with its one-car bridge, then turn left onto the Forks of the Credit Road. Now you are driving on one of the prettiest roads in Southern Ontario. Further along, as you drive along the winding narrow road, the Credit River ripples along on the right. Drive as slowly as you can so that you can take in as much of the scenery as possible. The original name of the community of Forks of the Credit was Credit Forks. After the Credit Valley Railway arrived in 1879, it began to be called Forks of the Credit. With appropriate bureaucratic speed, about ninety-seven years, the name was officially changed in 1976. The area, like the area around Boston Mills and Inglewood, was known for its quarries. Stone from these quarries was used in the Ontario Parliament buildings, the University of Toronto, and Toronto's Old City Hall. Dominion Road goes off on the right toward what was known as Brimstone, with a branch of the river accompanying it. Workers from the quarries once lived in Brimstone and their fiery behaviour might have contributed to the name. At one time, Dominion Road crossed the Credit River and ended in Cataract, but the bridge has disappeared and the road now ends at a conservation area south of the river. As you drive under the railway bridge, you are driving toward the site where Price's dam and sawmill were located in the 1870s.
Just after you pass under the bridge, you come to a terrific hairpin bend, famous in the Brampton area for terrorizing motorists learning to drive. Negotiate this with extreme caution. Where the bend is sharpest, you are quite close to the railway, which you can see on your right. The railway bridge that you have just driven under was once part of a very long wooden trestle that took the railway line across the Credit Valley in a big curve. This trestle was largely filled in by pouring gravel through the railway ties until the gravel formed an embankment. As you drive around the hairpin bend, you are actually driving up the embankment. The centre section of the trestle could not be filled in because it crossed over the river; in 1888, this section was replaced by the steel bridge that is there now.
The Big Hill Quarry was high on the hillside just north of the hairpin on the west side of the river, and the Credit Forks Station was at the side of the railway line below the quarry. The quarry had its own siding near the station and used an ingenious lift to get the stone from the quarry to the siding. The lift consisted of two buckets connected by cable so that as the weight of the stone took the loaded bucket down, it carried the unloaded bucket back up to be loaded.
At Mississauga Road, turn right and drive past the Caledon Ski Club. The first location of the club is at the top of the ski hill. Drive down the hill. The present lower location of the Caledon Ski Club was once the home of the Credit Forks Tile and Brick Company. Great hopes lay behind the company; it was to be a factory where fine china was to be made. Unfortunately the clay was not up to the standard required so the company failed. The dam created for the factory is still there, as is the lake created by the dam. As you drive down the hill, look to the right to see the lake. Continue down the hill then up the hill again. At Cataract Road, turn right toward Cataract. A quest for gold brought William Grant to this area. One day, he stopped by the waterfall for a drink and found that the water tasted salty. In those days, salt was more precious than gold for at least two reasons: first, because salt was a staple of life for people and animals, and, second, because salt was a preservative in the days before refrigeration. He returned to his former employer, Matthew Crooks, and persuaded him to invest in a salt mine. However the salt was too deep to mine with the tools they had, so they had to abandon that project. Later, Grant built a sawmill and named the area Gleniffer. In 1855, Richard Church bought the abandoned site for $100 and renamed it Church's Falls. He surveyed the site into 160 residential lots and named the streets after his children. Most of the lots and streets were never opened up. In the late 1870s, with the arrival of the Credit Valley Railway, the village was renamed Cataract to avoid confusion with Churchville. Benjamin Ward bought Church's mill before eventually moving further north to Alton.
Grant's or Crook's mill had a dam made from logs to create a head of water for the mill. Later owners reinforced the dam, which carried Dominion Street across it to link the communities of Brimstone and Cataract. This lasted until 1912 when a severe rainfall caused the dams at Alton and other mills higher up the Credit to burst, creating a wall of water that smashed the dam here at Cataract. The dam was never rebuilt and Dominion Street now ends at the edge of the Forks-of-the-Credit Provincial Park. The former street inside the park is a narrow path with a footbridge that spans the river over the ruins of the dam.
John J. (Jack) McLaughlin opened a bottling works a little southwest of Cataract in 1911, so becoming a forerunner of the multitude of water-bottling companies operating today. His bottling works supplied water for McLaughlin's main product, Canada Dry Ginger Ale. Today Canada Dry has bottling works around the world but the one in Cataract is long gone. Incidentally, Jack McLaughlin was the brother of Col. Sam McLaughlin of General Motors Canada. At the end of the village, the road turns sharply left just after the Cataract Inn. The inn was originally called the Horseshoe Inn. It was owned by Mrs. William Glen between 1880 and 1916 and had the awful name Dewdrop Inn. When business dewdropped off, she sold the inn to the McEnaney sisters, who turned the inn into a store because they already owned the other inn in town. New owners have restored, refurnished, and refined the old inn, which now houses a high-class restaurant and sports an old English telephone box outside.
Continue along the road until you reach Alton. First settled by Thomas Russell in 1834, Alton is now best known for the Millcroft Inn. At one time, the village had two main mills: Algie's Mill and Dod's Mill. Algie's Mill was also known as the Lower Mill and Dod's Mill was the Upper Mill. The Upper Mill was originally built by William McClellan and may have been producing yarn and blankets as early as 1845. In 1881, Benjamin Ward, who had been a partner with William Algie in running the woollen mill in Inglewood, bought the mill. He saw the power of Shaw's Creek and rebuilt the mill in stone in 1881. The new building was four stories high and had a peaked roof. John Dods, one of Ward's sons-in-law, bought it in 1900. Dods was reputed to have a tight grip on his money. It was rumoured that he was too miserly to afford the extra "d" in his name. At about the same time as Ward was building the Upper Mill, his former partner and now son-in-law, William Algie, built the Lower Mill, creating a company called Beaver Woollen Mills Limited. The Lower Mill was also a stone building but three storeys instead of four. The mill manufactured long underwear. Dods eventually bought the Lower Mill in 1916. Later Fred Stubbs converted the mill to make rubber products as the Western Rubber Co. It made a significant contribution in the Second World War by making condoms for Canadian troops. Drive down to the intersection of Regional Road 136 (Main Street) and Queen Street. Here Regional Road 136 filters right. Instead of following the main road, turn left at the stop sign onto Queen Street. The building on the left corner as you turn was once the Palmer House Hotel, opened by Mr. J. Palmer in 1918. As you drive, you may be able to see Shaw's Creek on the right side of the road.
Turn right on Amelia Street. On the far side of the bridge, turn left toward the Alton Mill. At the end of the lane is the Lower Mill.
Return to Amelia Street, then turn right and go back across the bridge to Queen Street. Turn right and drive west to the Upper Mill. As you drive, you can see on the right the Lower Mill on the far side of the creek. Follow the signs for the Millcroft Inn. This was once Dod's Upper Mill but now John Dods would scarcely recognise it. It has grown tremendously over the past few years and now is much more than a fine hotel and restaurant. For more information about the Millcroft Inn, see www.millcroft.com.
You have now reached the end of the trip.
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SS5 Schoolhouse
Mino House
McMurchy (Hutton) Mill
Hutton House
Old
Norval Bank
LM
Montgomery House
Miller's House
Church's Falls or the cataract at Cataract
Footbridge over the dam at Cataract
Cataract Inn
