Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Meaford, Ontario

Christ Church, Meaford, OntarioMeaford, Ontario (2006 pop. 10,948) is on southern Georgian Bay in Grey County. It was incorporated as a town in 1874.

In 1837 inhabitants of St. Vincent Township petitioned the government requesting that land at the mouth of the Bighead River be reserved as a landing place. The land was set aside, a town plot of "Meaford" laid out in 1845, and lots subsequently offered for sale. As early as 1841 a sawmill and a grist-mill had been built on adjoining land, several roads constructed to the landing and a post office called "St. Vincent" established. In 1865 this post office was renamed "Meaford", which by that time had become a flourishing community, connected by steamer and road with the railhead at Collingwood.

location of Meaford, OntarioChrist Church, Meaford, Ontario has six stained glass windows created from shards of Cathedral windows shattered in the Second World War. The church's rector went to England in 1942 as chaplain to the Canadian Fusiliers. He spent his spare time collecting and identifying remnants of windows from bombed churches across Britain. A window-maker in Brighton then created the six windows from those fragments.