Cannington is a community in Brock Township,

Durham Region The Regional Municipality of Durham (), informally referred to as Durham Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada. Located east of Toronto and the Regional Municipality of York, it forms the east end of the Greater Toronto A ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. The town is on the Beaver River.

History

Originally part of the original Brock Township, (historic map) Cannington was first settled in 1833. It was first known as McCaskill's Mills after a local mill-owning family. In 1849, a post office was opened, at which point the settlement was renamed Cannington after former British foreign secretary and Prime Minister

George Canning George Canning (; 11 April 17708 August 1827) was a British Tory statesman. He held various senior cabinet positions under numerous prime ministers, including two important terms as foreign secretary, finally becoming Prime Minister of the U ...

(1770–1827). Cannington separated from Brock Township in 1878 when it was incorporated as a Village. When Durham Region was created in 1974, Cannington was amalgamated with the original Brock Township, Thorah Township and the Village of Beaverton to create the newly expanded Township of Brock. In 1987 there was a fire that destroyed dozens of homes through the town.

Amenities

The community serves as a service centre for the surrounding rural area. It is home to the municipal offices of Brock Township, as well as a secondary school, Brock High School, and an elementary school, McCaskill's Mills Public School, named after the original town name, which was opened in 2006. It was originally two separate schools, H.W. Knight Public School, and Cannington Public School, which later amalgamated. The elementary school offers a

French Immersion French immersion is a form of bilingual education in which students who do not speak French as a first language will receive instruction in French. In most French- immersion schools, students will learn to speak French and learn most subjects ...

Program, but not the high school. French Immersion students are bused to Port Perry High School, which offers the program. The post office on Cameron St. W. services locals with lock boxes and two rural routes. There are multiple restaurants such as Mays Restaurant, Pub 12 and The Wing House. GO Bus route 81 connects the community to Whitby GO Station, which provides GO train connections to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. Two northbound buses (to Beaverton) and two southbound buses (to

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby ...

) serve the community each day.

Notable people

Cannington was the adopted hometown of guitarist Don Ross for twelve years. Ross' daughter, poet and author Tara McGowan-Ross, also lived there for much of her adolescence. Cannington was home to the author

Timothy Findley Timothy Irving Frederick Findley, (October 30, 1930 – June 20, 2002) was a Canadian novelist and playwright.

, who wrote a memoir, '' From Stone Orchard'', about his experiences living at a farm on the outskirts of Cannington. McCaskill's Mills features as a setting in his 1995 novel " The Piano Man's Daughter". After Findley moved to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

due to declining health, dancer

Rex Harrington Rex Howard Harrington, (born October 30, 1962, in Peterborough, Ontario) is a Canadian ballet dancer.Rick MacLeish Richard George MacLeish (January 3, 1950 – May 30, 2016) was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who played 14 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Philadelphia Flyers, Hartford Whalers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Detroit ...

(1950–2016), an

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

hockey player who played with the

Philadelphia Flyers The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia. The Flyers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team play ...

in the 1970s and 1980s.

Events

In October, there is the Cannington Haunted Attraction, a collection of Halloween-themed activities in MacLoed Park.

References

External links

Brock Township
{{authority control 1833 establishments in Canada Populated places established in 1833 1974 disestablishments in Ontario Communities in the Regional Municipality of Durham Former municipalities in Ontario Populated places disestablished in 1974 George Canning