Newcastle, Ontario

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Newcastle is a community in the Municipality of Clarington in Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. The Town of Newcastle was also the original name of what is now Clarington.

Newcastle is located about 80 km east of Toronto, and about 18 km east of Oshawa and Bowmanville on Highway 401. It is also the southern terminus of Highway 35/115.(Highway 35).

Contents

[edit] History

Newcastle was incorporated as a town in 1856. It remained a small community until the 1990s, when new residential development began and the population quickly swelled. Newcastle had a jail in the late 1800s, though the location is not known. Maps of Newcastle from those years have not been discovered. Many have tried to find the location of this jail; however, it is believed that it was either demolished or had been destroyed by the elements.

Newcastle has a beautiful town hall, donated by the Massey family, one high school, several public schools, a post office, churches, a few plazas, several small parks, an ice arena, a marina on Lake Ontario, and a golf course.

[edit] Famous people

  • Joseph E. Atkinson (December 23, 1865 – May 7, 1948) was a Canadian newspaper editor and activist. Under his leadership the Toronto Star became one of the largest and most influential newspapers in Canada.
  • Daniel Massey, whose farm implement business eventually formed Massey-Ferguson.
  • Early settlers using sticks and spears could catch as many as 1000 salmon in one night from streams running into Lake Ontario. One man who had a great influence on the village was Samuel Wilmot. He became interested in the salmon as early as 1860 and build a "fish hatchery" at Newcastle - one of the world's first. Wilmot would eventually become head of fisheries for Canada, and in the 1890s he was running a small generating station which supplied Newcastle with its first electrical power - from sunset until about 12:00 midnight.
  • The 1980's rock band Chalk Circle was formed in the village. They had hits in Canada with songs like April Fool, Me, Myself and I and Sons and Daughters, a song about the negative effects of free trade with the USA.

[edit] Town of Newcastle, 1973-94

The name "Town of Newcastle" was used from 1973-94 for the municipality now called the Municipality of Clarington. The name was changed in 1994 to alleviate long standing confusion between the municipality as a whole and the community of the same name. The community was commonly known as "Newcastle Village" to distinguish the two. It was also a confusing fact that Bowmanville had a larger population than "Newcastle Village", and it also housed the former Town of Newcastle's municipal offices, causing some to believe the town should have all been called "Bowmanville" instead of "Newcastle" during that period.

[edit] Popular attractions

  • Docville Wild West Park is a mock wild west town that offers it's use to moviemakers and other paid visitors.
  • The Newcastle Santa Claus Parade began in 2005.

[edit] Statistics and location

  • Population: about 10,000
  • Area: -
  • density: -
  • Location:
  • Altitude: about 150 m
    • Latitude: about 43.8 (44°48') N
    • Longitude: about 78.5 (78°30') W
  • Area code: +(00)1-905
  • Age: 150 years

[edit] Nearest places

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 43.9177° N 78.5888° W