Selwyn is a township in central-eastern Ontario, Canada, located in Peterborough County. Formerly known as Smith-Ennismore-Lakefield, the township passed a by-law changing its name to Selwyn in 2012. The change became official on January 15, 2013.
Geography
The township comprises the communities of: Bridgenorth, Chemong Heights, Chemong Park, Connaught Shore, Deer Bay, Emerald Isle, Ennismore, Fife's Bay, Flood's Landing, Fowlers Corners, Gannon Beach, Gannon Village, Kawartha Park, Kimberley Park, Lakefield, Selwyn, Selwyn Shores, Stewart Heights, Tera View Heights, Tindle Bay, Victoria Springs, Village Meadowa, Windward Sands, Woodland Acres, Young's Cove, Young's Point and Youngstown. The township is 67 percent rural including small villages and hamlets, along with the urban areas of Lakefield, Bridgenorth - Chemong Park, and Woodland Acres. Farms have been established on most of the flat areas, which are intermixed between the rolling hills and lakes. The Trent-Severn Waterway passes through the township.
History
On January 1, 1998, Ennismore and Smith Townships were merged to form the Township of Smith-Ennismore. On January 1, 2001, a Minister's Order created the township in its current form by amalgamating the formerly independent Village of Lakefield with the Township of Smith-Ennismore and part of Douro–Dummer Township. On December 11, 2012 the township council voted to select a new name after Canada Post notified many residents that addresses would have to be changed to reflect the municipality due to a phasing out of its rural route system. By a vote of 3 to 2, the township council voted to adopt the new name of Selwyn.
Economy
The region is in the heart of Ontario's eastern cottage country, where urban residents have cottages on many of the small lakes. Many of the retail and services offered in the region cater to this seasonal market. Small scale farms are a large industry, and dairy and meat production are some of the notable goods.
Near the village is Lakefield College School which Prince Andrew, Duke of York attended in 1977. The campus was the filming location for the 1977 Canadian film Age of Innocence/Ragtime Summer. In the village itself is the Lakefield District Public School, which opened in 2018 after the Ridpath Junior Public School, named after James William Ridpath, publisher in the late 19th century and early 20th century of the Lakefield News, local businessman, sportsman and dignitary, was closed. LDPS took over the building formerly used for the now closed Lakefield District Secondary School. St. Paul's Catholic School, which is situated very close to the high school, is the area parochial school.
In fiction
In Paul Nicholas Mason's novel Battered Soles, Lakefield is the site of a pilgrimage, begun in July 1997, which sees thousands of pilgrims from all over the world walk from Peterborough along the Rotary Greenway Trail to St. John's Anglican Church in the village. The focus of the pilgrimage is a life-sized statue of a blue-skinned Jesus in the basement of the church. Mason's second novel, The Red Dress, is also set in Lakefield, although this time the community is thinly-disguised as Greenfield.
In film
Lakefield and Lakefield College School were used as the location for the 1977 Canadian film Age of Innocence starring David Warner, Honor Blackman and Trudy Young. One memorable scene was shot at the location of the old Lakefield train station on Stanley St. The first four letters were removed on the Lakefield sign and replaced with the name Rockfield.
Unheralded, a National Film Boarddocumentary directed by Aaron Hancox, is about the Lakefield Herald. It focuses on this community paper's journalists as they cover newsworthy events taking place in and around the town.
