| Westfield Heritage Centre | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1961 |
| Location | Rockton, Ontario, Canada. |
| Type | open air museum |
| Website | www.westfieldheritage.ca/ |
The Westfield Heritage Centre is home to the Westfield Heritage Village. The village contains over 30 historic buildings on a 3.4 square kilometres (840 acres) site. The village is located just west of Rockton, Ontario, Canada.
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In 1961, the Westfield Pioneer Village Association acquired the original 30 acres (120,000 m2) of land. The goal was to create a hands-on educational facility to teach pioneer life. The original name of the facility was the Westfield Pioneer Village. The village unofficially opened in June 1963 and officially opened in 1964. The village had at least four buildings at this time. In May 1968 the former Wentworth County agreed to purchase the village for CAD $32,700. Ownership transferred to the Wentworth County on November 1, 1968.
The name was changed to Wentworth Heritage Village in 1981 because much of the collection was not of the pioneer era.
The village ceased operation on September 3, 1984 due to a financial crisis. Over the next few years various ideas were discuss ranging from moving the facility to creating a theme park.
Starting in 1985, several scenes from the Anne of Green Gables movie series were shot in the village. Including buildings such as the saw mill, church, train station and general store.
A five year redevelopment began in 1990. The goal was to create a "special events theme centre" and the facility was renamed the Westfield Heritage Centre.
In 2010 the village received a substantial grant from the TD (Toronto Dominion) bank to plant several groves of fruit trees and construct two beehives. As of May 2010 one was in operation and awaiting the arrival of more bees to enlarge the colony. A second beehive is being planned. The aim of the apiary program is to illustrate the importance of the European honey bee (Apius Mellifera ) to the settlers and to raise awareness for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) .
The Museum is affiliated with: CMA, CHIN, and Virtual Museum of Canada.