Halton and Wellington Back Roads
A trip from Georgetown to Fergus and Elora
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This trip takes you from George Kennedy's Georgetown in Halton Hills to Elora, named by Captain William Gilkison for the Cave Temples of Elora in India. On the way, you will have the opportunity to see some limekiln ruins in Limehouse, the old leather town of Acton, the small village of Everton (not named for the soccer team), and Fergus with its stone main street so reminiscent of Scotland. Starting the trip-GeorgetownStart facing east (down Mill Street) at the intersection of Mill Street and Main Street deep in the heart of Old Georgetown. The building on the northeast corner of the intersection, the McGibbon Hotel, was once Clarke's Hotel and was built about 1867, although there was a hotel there in 1849. The building on the northeast corner, now a restaurant called the Old Bank, was once the Bennett Hotel. The southeast corner was where Francis Barclay opened his store in 1848. The fourth corner, the southwest corner, was where James Young opened his store in 1842, just after his marriage.
Drive down Mill Street. Turn right onto Park Avenue. George Kennedy's original woollen mill was located where the tall apartment building now stands. At one time, Silver Creek ran along the gully behind the apartment building and was the source of the mill's power. The houses on the left as you drive along Park Avenue are built on what was the creek. Here was where the original Barber Mills weres located. Park Avenue, which was called Water Street when there was water here, swings right to go up the hill toward Main Street. On the right is Willowbank, Joseph Barber's home. On the left, at the corner of Park Avenue and Main Street is Berwick Hall, a big Victorian building that was once the home of Joseph's nephew, John R. Barber. It is now an apartment building.
Turn left onto Main Street. At the traffic lights at Maple Avenue, turn right. Continue to the traffic lights at Trafalgar Road. This intersection marks the northern boundary of Stewarttown. This village is the oldest village in Halton County. It was formerly called Esquesing Village to denote that it was the capital of Esquesing Township. "Esquesing" is an aboriginal word meaning "last creek out" (not, as was formerly thought, "land of tall pines"). Stewarttown was named after John and Duncan Stewart, who built a dam, saw mill, and gristmill here in 1820. In 1850, it had three hotels, a tannery, two saddler's shops, a furniture dealer, and a general merchant's store. Then the Grand Trunk Railway went to Georgetown and business went with it. A piece of trivia: Tom Longboat, the great marathon runner, used to run along Trafalgar Road between Stewarttown and Hornby as part of his training regimen. Drive straight across the intersection and continue along Maple Avenue. Turn right onto Sixth Line and drive north to the 22nd Sideroad. The road is lined with trees on both sides. As you drive north, the woods on the left side are very thick, with the occasional house buried deep inside. You can see the farm fields through the trees on the right. Keep driving north; the road narrows and the trees form a canopy overhead. If the day is sunny, you will be driving through dappled sunshine. To the left, you may be able to catch a glimpse of Black Creek. Just after you pass the 20th Sideroad, you cross over a bridge as the creek crosses to the right side of the road. Further north, you pass under a railway bridge as the CN Railway crosses the road. At the 22nd Sideroad, turn left. The junction is awkward because it is at the top of a small hill, so that you must lean forward to see the road. On the northwest corner is the picturesque Limehouse Presbyterian church. Just after you turn left, you will see the signpost for Limehouse. Limehouse is not named for the area of London, England; it's named for its lime works and kilns. The Hull and Meredith families first owned the area, but, in 1840, a Mr Clendenning bought the land and its sawmill, and named the place Fountain Green. This fanciful name was changed to the more practical Limehouse in 1857 when the post office was established here. In the meantime, John Newton built the first mill in 1850 and this supplied all of the water lime used in the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway. The companies of Bescoby & Worthington and Lindsay & Farquhar competed as suppliers of lime. The Bescoby & Worthington kilns were just south of the railway line. The Lindsay & Farquhar kilns were just across the road from the school in Limehouse. As you drive through, notice the big red barn marked Grantland Farm on the right. This barn forms part of a military museum. Further on, the road dips then climbs. At the bottom of the hill is the location of the Myles McDonald Hotel.
At the top, there is a wide parking area for the school, which is on the hill to the right of the parking area. Across the road from the parking area is the former location of the Lindsay & Farquhar limekilns. To see the remains of the factory, now mostly surrounded by a high fence, park your car in the parking area, cross the road, and walk back about thirty metres down the road past the fence. If you look back toward the fence, you can see the remains of the factory walls below the base of the fence. If you look carefully, you might be able to see the remains of some of the kilns. Back in the car again, continue along the 22nd Sideroad. About fifty metres further on, the road forks. Take the left fork. The road swings left over a bridge only wide enough for a single car. Past the bridge, the road swings right again past the Limehouse Memorial Hall.
To see the remains of the Bescoby & Worthington kilns, park in the parking area for the Limehouse Memorial Hall. Walk back down the road toward the bridge, but, instead of turning left to cross the bridge, follow a path into the Limehouse Conservation Area. To see pictures of the remains of the kilns and for more information about them, go to the web site of the Limehouse Kiln Society at www.limehousekilns.ca. In particular, look at the virtual tour, which has a map to show you where things are. For more information on the history of Limehouse, see www.hhpl.on.ca/sigs/ehs/Limehouse.html. Back at the car, you may notice that the Memorial Hall was a former Methodist Episcopal church. A plaque on the front of the church states: HOREB 1876 M.E.CHURCH. Thomas Gowdy Sr, owner of the Bescoby & Worthington kilns, donated the land for this church. Drive past the Memorial Hall along the 22nd Sideroad to the 2nd Line, which is also Regional Road 25. Turn right and drive to Acton. Before it got its present name, Acton had been called Dansville and Adamsville (after the three Adams brothers Zenas, Rufus, and Ezra). Postmaster Robert Swan chose the name in 1844 after his hometown in Northumberland, England. Acton is famous for its leather goods and it's worth a drive to visit the Old Hide House.
At the traffic lights, keep going straight as you join Highway 7. At the other end of Acton, Highway 7 bends to the left. Do not follow Highway 7; instead take a right turn that allows you to go straight up Regional Road 25. At the second intersection, turn left onto the 5th Sideroad. At the third intersection, turn right onto the 7th Line and drive to Everton. This pretty little village was named after R. Everett who built mills here. In the village, the road jogs right and then crosses over the south branch of the Speed River. To the left of the road were two mills; on the south side of the river was a gristmill and on the opposite bank was a sawmill. Both were built by Mr. Everett and later bought by Henry Hortop. To the north of the bridge, the road jogs back again to the 7th Line.
Continue along the 7th Line to the next intersection. The building on the southwest corner is the old Half Way House, a former hotel. Turn left onto Regional Road 124, which used to be Highway 24. On the right, just after you turn the corner, was SS7, the local schoolhouse. At the traffic lights at Brucedale, turn right onto the 5th Line. Continue along 5th Line past the little hamlet of Oustic. Two roads after Oustic, you cross the Eramosa-Garafraxa Townline Road and the name of the road you are travelling on changes from 5th Line to 4th Line. This is very confusing if you are using the MapArt Ontario Road Atlas because this happens very near the centre division of the map. The road bends left and then straightens up again before coming to a T-junction with Regional Road 18. Turn left. The road runs alongside Belwood Lake for a while before you reach Fergus. At Scotland Street, turn right and drive down to the Grand River. This area was once Pierpoint Settlement, the home of a community of freed slaves led by Captain Dick Pierpoint, former Butler's Ranger. Dick's Creek, used by the first and second Welland Canals, was named for Pierpoint. Scotland Street itself has historical connections. It is actually the Jones Baseline Road. Named for Augustus Jones, who surveyed the Six Nations Tract, this road designated the limit of the Six Nations Grant, The grant was all of the land up to six miles on each side of the Grand River from its mouth to its source. Because, at that time, no-one knew where the source was, a line was drawn from the edge of Joseph Brant's property at Wellington Square, now Burlington, and run at an angle of 45 degrees until it reached the source of the Grand River. The line never reached the source of the Grand River because it intersected the river just a little further along Scotland Street, but it did mark the eastern limit of the Six Nations Grant. So as you drive down Scotland Street, the land on your left was part of the Six Nations Grant and the land on your right was not. Cross over the bridge and turn left onto St Andrew Street. At the intersection, the former Fergus and Monkland Mills have been converted to condominiums in a very striking way. The mills date back to 1856.
As you drive along St Andrew's Street, notice the signs on some of the historic houses on both sides of the street. One striking pair of houses has a sign for Matilda Harvey's cottage at 365 St Andrew's Street. The cottage dates from 1866.
The houses on St Andrew Street give way to grey stone store fronts as the road approaches Highway 6. The stone buildings are reminiscent of the stone buildings in many towns in Scotland.
Across Highway 6, St Andrew Street gradually becomes less residential as the road follows the Grand River past the Wellington County Museum and Archives and the little community of Aboyne into Elora. Drive to the traffic lights at Metcalfe Street, turn left. Go across the bridge, then turn right into the parking area and park your car. Walk back to the traffic lights and stop on the bridge to look for the swans. Turn left into Mill Street. This is a very pretty area of shops and boutiques. At the end of the street is the Elora Mill, now a fine hotel and restaurant. There is a good spot just before you reach the hotel where you can look over a wall at the river as it rushes down past the mill. You can see the dam built to raise the level of the water for the mill. At the entrance to the Elora Mill is a small cottage, now part of the mill complex. This is the Ross House, home of James Ross, former owner of the mill. Walk up the road next to the cottage. "Walk up" is appropriate for the road rises steeply because you are walking up the side of the Elora Gorge. As you walk up the road, the wall on your left encloses the property once owned by JM Fraser, another owner of the Elora Mill. He built the house in 1863. At Church Street, turn left and follow the trail, keeping left as you do so. As you walk, you will be walking along the edge of the Elora Gorge. Among the things you will see is the Grand River as it flows past the mill and down the Elora Falls. Continue along the path until you come to the lookout. This is placed at the point where the Irvine River, coming in from the right, joins the Grand River, flowing from the left, to flow down the Elora Gorge. You have come to the end of the trip.
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McGibbon
Hotel
Willowbank
Berwick
Hall
Myles
McDonald Hotel
Limehouse
Memorial Hall
Mills in Fergus
Matilda Harvey House (left house of the pair)
Fergus