Wellington is an unincorporated place and community in Prince Edward County in

eastern Ontario Eastern Ontario (census population 1,763,186 in 2016) (french: Est de l'Ontario) is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies in a wedge-shaped area between the Ottawa River and St. Lawrence River. It s ...

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 ...

. It has a population of 1,932 according to the 2016 Census. The community is located on the shore of both

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

and West Lake in the southwest of the county. Sandbanks Beach, the northernmost of

Sandbanks Provincial Park Sandbanks Provincial Park is a provincial park located on Lake Ontario in Prince Edward County near Picton, Ontario, Canada. The park is considered one of the best sandy beaches in Ontario and contains the largest bay-mouth barrier dune f ...

's beaches, is located in the Village of Wellington, where it is called Wellington Rotary Beach. It is separated from the Sandbanks Provincial Park by a canal through the beach to Wellington Harbour.

History

Daniel Reynolds' House, c. 1786 or 1792 One of Prince Edward County's earliest residents, Daniel Reynolds, first came to the area in the 18th century and settled in Wellington, where his house remains today along Main Street. Reynolds was nicknamed "Old Smoke" by local

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

, hence the community was first known as Smoke Ville. When a post office was established in the 1830s, the village was renamed Wellington after the

Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister of ...

Demographics

Arts and Culture

The Wellington Heritage Museum is located in the heart of the village, and was built in 1885 as a Quaker Meeting House. A key exhibit is the Douglas A. Crawford Canning Industry Collection, as more than 75 canning factories operated in Prince Edward County from 1882 to 1996.

Attractions

Th
Wellington Farmers' Market
is the largest open-air market in the region, and is open from

Victoria Day Victoria Day (french: Fête de la Reine, lit=Celebration of the Queen) is a federal Canadian public holiday celebrated on the last Monday preceding May 25. Initially in honour of Queen Victoria's birthday, it has since been celebrated as the offi ...

Labour Day Labour Day ('' Labor Day'' in the United States) is an annual holiday to celebrate the achievements of workers. Labour Day has its origins in the labour union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for ...

. The Toronto boutique hotelier The Drake Hotel opened a location in Wellington in the fall of 2014.

Sports

Wellington and District Community Centre - Wellington, ON

The

Wellington Dukes The Wellington Dukes are a Junior "A" ice hockey team from Wellington, Ontario, Canada. They are in the Eastern Division of the Ontario Junior Hockey League and used to be a part of the Metro Junior A Hockey League. Originally a Junior C team in ...

of the

Ontario Junior Hockey League The Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) is a Junior A ice hockey league in Ontario, Canada. It is under the supervision of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) and the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). The league was listed as the 7th best ...

(Junior A) play at the Essroc Arena (capacity 1,600), part of the Wellington and District Community Centre. The Prince Edward County Minor Baseball Association plays all its games in Wellington, and the rep teams of the Quinte Royals Baseball Club (Midget and Minor Midget age group teams) play their homes games at the Wellington Field of Dreams. There is also a skating club and an equestrian centre in the community.

Infrastructure

Transportation

The main road in the community is County Road 33 (formerly

Ontario Highway 33 King's Highway 33, commonly referred to as Highway 33 or Loyalist Parkway, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The route begins at Highway 62 in Bloomfield and travels east to the Collins Bay Road ju ...

), known as the Loyalist Parkway. The road goes northwest to Trenton (part of

Quinte West Quinte West is a city, geographically located in but administratively separated from Hastings County, in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is located on the western end of the Bay of Quinte on Lake Ontario. The Lake Ontario terminus of the Trent–Sev ...

) and east to Picton. The Prince Edward County Railway from Picton to Trenton ran through the community. It was opened in 1879, was extended to form the

Central Ontario Railway The Central Ontario Railway (COR) was a former railway that ran north from Trenton, Ontario to service a number of towns, mines, and sawmills. Originally formed as the Prince Edward County Railway in 1879, it ran between Picton and Trenton, wher ...

in 1882, became part of the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

in 1923, and operated until 1985. The route through the community today forms a

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

portion of the Millennium Trail.

Education

English language public elementary education from JK to Grade 8 is offered at C.M.L. Snider Public School in the

Hastings & Prince Edward District School Board The Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board (known as English-language Public District School Board No. 29 prior to 1999) has 39 elementary and eight secondary schools, serving over 18,400 students, and employing more than 1,070 teachers ...

. Students must travel to nearby schools in Belleville for separate school French Immersion education, or to Picton for French-language public elementary education. Both Belleville and Quinte West are about 25 minutes by car north of Wellington. Picton is about 20 minutes east of Wellington. Secondary students travel to Prince Edward Collegiate in Picton for English language public secondary education, or to Bayside Secondary School in Quinte West for French Immersion public secondary education.

Media

Since 1992, the community has been served by the independent ''Wellington Times'' newspaper. The paper is available at over 50 retail locations across the County, and has a circulation of approximately 4,000.

Notable people

* Arthur G. Dorland (1887 – 1979), historian

References

External links

*
Discover Wellington
by the Wellington District Business Association {{authority control Communities in Prince Edward County, Ontario Designated places in Ontario Former villages in Ontario