Southwold is a township in

Elgin County Elgin County is a county of the Canadian province of Ontario with a 2016 population of 50,069. Its population centres are St. Thomas, Aylmer, Port Stanley, Belmont, Dutton and West Lorne. The county seat is St. Thomas, which is separated from t ...

, in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, located on the north shore of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

. It is a rich agricultural zone producing predominantly

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

and

soybeans The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu and ...

. It is part of the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

census metropolitan area The census geographic units of Canada are the census subdivisions defined and used by Canada's federal government statistics bureau Statistics Canada to conduct the country's quinquennial census. These areas exist solely for the purposes of sta ...

History

The Southwold Earthworks is located in the township. It is an example of a

pre-contact In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

site associated with the indigenous

Neutral people The Neutral Confederacy (also Neutral Nation, Neutral people, or ''Attawandaron'' by neighbouring tribes) were an Iroquoian people who lived in what is now southwestern and south-central Ontario in Canada, North America. They lived throughout t ...

. The period of Neutral occupation is dated to approximately 14501550. It was designated as a National Historic Site in 1923. Southwold was named in 1792 after

Southwold Southwold is a seaside town and civil parish on the English North Sea coast in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk. It lies at the mouth of the River Blyth within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town is a ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The municipality was incorporated in 1852. Shedden's growth occurred when the

Canada Southern Railway The Canada Southern Railway , also known as CSR, was a railway in southwestern Ontario, Canada, founded on February 28, 1868 as the Erie and Niagara Extension Railway. Its name was changed to Canada Southern Railway on December 24, 1869. The 1868 ...

was built, bypassing Fingal. Later it was joined by the

Pere Marquette railway The Pere Marquette Railway operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections in ...

, boosting Shedden's importance further still. Both railways are now defunct. Talbotville is situated at the intersection of highways 3 & 4, two of the oldest roads in the region. Southwold was the site of the 2006

Shedden massacre The Shedden massacre involved the gang-related killing of eight men, whose bodies were found in a field five kilometres northKemick, April"Despite their belief the crime was committed by outsiders, area residents are nervous.", ''London Free Press ...

Economy

The township is home to the Green Lane Landfill, a large garbage dump site purchased by the City of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in 2007. Toronto began shipping waste to the site in 2010. Southwold was also home of the Ford St. Thomas Assembly plant until its closure in 2011.

Communities

Fingal Fingal ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is one of three successor counties to County Dublin, which was disestablished for administrative purposes in 1994. ...

* Iona *

Iona Station Iona Station is a hamlet located on the border of Dutton-Dunwich and Southwold townships, in Elgin County, Ontario, Canada.The "station" in the name was on the Canada Southern Railroad owned by the Michigan Central Railroad, later by the New York ...

* Paynes Mills * Shedden * Talbotville Royal Shedden ON

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Southwold had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

References

External links

* {{Geographic location , Centre = Southwold , North = Oneida 41,

Middlesex Centre Middlesex Centre is a township (Canada), township in Middlesex County, Ontario, Middlesex County, in southwestern Ontario, Canada, north and west of London, Ontario, London. The Corporation of the Township of Middlesex Centre formed on January 1, ...

, Northeast =

, East =

Central Elgin Central Elgin is a township located in Southwestern Ontario, Canada in Elgin County on Lake Erie. It is part of the London census metropolitan area. History Central Elgin was formed in 1998 through the amalgamation of the Township of Yarmouth ...

, St. Thomas , Southeast = , South = ''

'' , Southwest =

Dutton/Dunwich Dutton/Dunwich is a municipality located in western Elgin County in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The municipality was formed in 1998 through an amalgamation of the Village of Dutton and former Township of Dunwich. It includes the Hamlets of ...

, West =

Southwest Middlesex Southwest Middlesex is a municipality in Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada. The restructured municipality of Southwest Middlesex was incorporated on January 1, 2001. This amalgamation joined the Village of Glencoe and the Village of Wardsville wi ...