Around the Village

We spent quite some time touring around Hampton, to see other interesting historical places and scenery. This structure is the Tyrone Mill, a very early part of Ontario history. The early villages grew up around mills which means settlements were situated frequently around rivers and natural water falls. Tyrone Mill was a flour mill and today still operates as a lumber mill.

The blacksmith shop.

The hills around Hampton.

The United Church in Hampton. Richard and Nicole take the baby here to church, much to the delight of the elderly parishioners who smile through all the baby noises that Rachel make. They tell them that they LOVE having a baby at church...this Sunday the church is having a play with many of the village children taking part. The architecture is typical early Ontario Presbyterian style.

 On the opposite corner from the church is the corner store, a mainstay of any proper Ontario village. Sometimes (as in the one I used to live, the post office is found here)...today they sell lottery tickets instead :)

 Our little group is heading down to Hampton Pond. Hampton had four mills at one time, and they were located opposite the road from the pond, which has silted up considerably. You can see just a tiny remnant of it in the far right.

Around Hampton Pond is a delightful wood, currently filled with wild Phlox which unfortunately now are labelled as noxious weeds. I find them neither noxious, nor weeds. They grow in my garden at home and they are beautifully scented and a reminder of all the historic farmhouse gardens in the country!

 Rachel and Nicole stroll across the pedestrian bridge on the way back home.

 The quiet residential streets of the village are lined with hundred year old hardwood trees, the most magnificent of which are the sugar maples towering over the yards spreading a welcome shade from the summer heat.

 Here we saw a beautiful Victorian historic brick house on a huge lot almost stretching a full block. The garden was the usual English type, laid out to perennial beds with beautiful swaths of velvety green lawn.

 The style is one of several very popular in our early history. This property must have belonged to a very prominent early resident of the village. Perhaps Samuel McLaughlan, the auto car manufacturer?

 Another view of the same street.

Another style of Victorian brick.