Heritage

Live entertainment flourished in these hills a century and more ago. Before new technologies like the cinema changed everything, the stages of our local town halls were filled with performances that appealed to every taste.

From the mid-1870s until 1925, magistrate Joseph Pattullo had to pass sentence on a range of human foible and sin. The record suggests he usually judged the accused with fairness and sensitivity.

Getting to Upper Canada took determination – and good luck.

A stunning display of Corn Flower glass is turning heads in a brand new gallery at the Museum of Dufferin. Why this impressive collection has its home in Dufferin and how it got there is a remarkable story of creativity, commercial success and delightful coincidence.

In spring 1911, four wardens from neighbouring counties sat down for an informal chat. Their conversation here is imaginary, but the issues they discussed were the hot topics of the day – and eerily familiar.

How private archivist Alison Hird’s work is helping one family reflect on their personal history – and preserve it for the future.

What makes your old family heirlooms or bric-a-brac museum-worthy? It’s all in the story they tell.

With the notable exception of inmates charged with vagrancy (more on this later), the vast majority of time served at Dufferin County Jail was measured in days, weeks or a few months.

When Hurricane Hazel finally blew itself out in October 1954, the damage and casualties left behind made it Ontario’s biggest weather event of the century. The flood control plans that followed were even bigger.

On the platform of a local railway car, 23-year-old David Hunter was an innocent victim in a deadly chain of events that turned deadly one evening in 1872.

The tweets and accusations of fake news in today’s media seem almost dainty compared to the Orangeville Sun’s lambasting of its rival weekly, the Orangeville Advertiser.

When The Yellow Briar was published in 1933 it hit all the right notes for a readership mired in the Great Depression.