Cotswold, Ontario
Encyclopedia
Cotswold is a small community located in the Town of Minto
Minto, Ontario
Minto is a town in midwestern Ontario, Canada, on the Maitland River in Wellington County. Minto is the eastern terminus of Highway 9. It is named for Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto; 8th Governor General of Canada....

, in the northern part of Wellington County
Wellington County, Ontario
Wellington County is a county located in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The county seat is Guelph, a city which is politically independent, but Guelph's status as the seat means it houses the county's administrative offices...

 in southern Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Cotswold was originally a separate community, but was amalgamated with other communities to create the Town of Minto.
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History

The name Cotswold
Cotswolds
The Cotswolds are a range of hills in west-central England, sometimes called the Heart of England, an area across and long. The area has been designated as the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...

 is English, after a range of hills in the Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...

 renowned for sheep grazing. The name does not reflect the backgrounds of the early settlers in the district, most of whom where Scottish and Irish; legend says that a settler imported sheep from Cotswold hills and borrowed the name for the post office. The community did have a couple stores, one of which also functioned as the post office. The early settlement also had a:
  • Sawmill
    Sawmill
    A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

  • Cobbler
    Shoemaking
    Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or...

  • Gristmill
    Gristmill
    The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...

  • Log schoolhouse
  • Blacksmith shop
  • Cheese Factory


The Cotswold Cheese factory (Minto and Arthur Cheese and Butter Manerfacturing Company Limited) opened in 1881 and was successful in its thirty years of business but was still only a marginal operation. Records show a change in ownership
Ownership
Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over property, which may be an object, land/real estate or intellectual property. Ownership involves multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different parties. The concept of ownership has...

 of various businesses (possibly due to low profits). The community declined as the roads to Palmerston
Palmerston, Ontario
Palmerston is an unincorporated community located at the south end of the town of Minto in northern part of Wellington County in southern Ontario, Canada.- History :...

 and Harriston
Harriston, Ontario
Harriston is a community in the town of Minto in Wellington County, Ontario, Canada. Although Harriston was formerly a village, it was amalgamated with Palmerston and Clifford to create Minto. The village has one public school , as well as shops and restaurants...

 improved. The post office was the last holdout, which closed in 1914. After fifty years of settlement, most of Cotswold's pioneers were gone.

List of some Cotswold settlers and pioneers

  • Wellington Adams
  • George Calder
  • John Campbell
  • Richard Conquest
  • John Darroch
  • John Greenwood
  • Charles, Thomas, and William Hughes
  • Elizabeth and Micheal Lawless
  • Peter Mckenzie
  • John Prain
  • George Reid
  • James Robertson
  • Wellington Wilson

Today

All that remains today of Cotswold is The Cotswold United Church. The community has been amalgamated with: Clifford
Clifford, Ontario
Clifford is a community in the Town of Minto in Wellington County, Ontario, Canada.The village of Clifford was founded around 1855 as Minto Village. After the opening of the post office in 1856, the settlement was renamed Clifford by the first postmaster Francis Brown after Clifford in West...

, Cotswold, Drew
Drew, Ontario
Drew is a rural farming community in Wellington County, Ontario, Canada, forming part of the Town of Minto. From the division of Minto into 18 concessions, Drew emerged from Concessions 16 and 17, spanning approximately five miles...

, Fultons, Glenlee, Harriston
Harriston, Ontario
Harriston is a community in the town of Minto in Wellington County, Ontario, Canada. Although Harriston was formerly a village, it was amalgamated with Palmerston and Clifford to create Minto. The village has one public school , as well as shops and restaurants...

, and Palmerston
Palmerston, Ontario
Palmerston is an unincorporated community located at the south end of the town of Minto in northern part of Wellington County in southern Ontario, Canada.- History :...

 to form the Town of Minto
Minto, Ontario
Minto is a town in midwestern Ontario, Canada, on the Maitland River in Wellington County. Minto is the eastern terminus of Highway 9. It is named for Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto; 8th Governor General of Canada....

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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