News

A talk by Judith Clapperton and James Breech

Wednesday, October 16 at 7 p.m.
Newcastle Community Hall

Had They But Known Her is a work of historical fiction by former resident of Newcastle, Judith Clapperton, about the life of Olive Wilmot.

Judith corrects the false information that Olive was reviled as a loose woman and depicted as the “prostitute” Mary Magdalene in the magnificent Tiffany stained glass window in the chancel of St. George’s Church, Newcastle.

Dr. James Breech is New Testament scholar and will discuss the Tiffany window.

Free Admission & refreshments following the talk.

We’ve posted a lot of our vintage movies (transferred to video) to YouTube for your enjoyment. From 1920s and 1930s movies of Newcastle residents to parades to the Orono Fair from the 1920s to the 1960s, there is something interesting for everyone. Who knows? Great Uncle George as a baby may just be in that movie from 1931… Check it out!

NVDHS YouTube Channel

Mark your calendars!

Saturday, April 13 at 11 a.m.
Historical Room, Newcastle Community Hall

• Find out what we’ve been doing for the past year
• Elect 2024-2025 Board of Directors
• Participate in our fun and informative Show and Tell
• Enjoy a light lunch afterwards

The meeting portion will be short and then it will be on to the fun of sharing our interesting items of historical interest. Found some mysterious items when cleaning out the basement at Great-uncle Dave’s? Or something amazing you found at a garage sale last summer? Bring it in and share at our very own Newcastle mini “Antiques Roadshow”

Free light lunch.

Hope you can join us! (Please let us know if you’ll be joining us for lunch too, so we can plan appropriate food quantities)

NVDHS General Meeting

Join us for a talk on antique bottle collecting!

Wednesday, April 17, 7 p.m.
Newcastle Community Hall, main hall
Cost: free, everyone welcome

Carl Parsons, founder of the Four Seasons Bottle Collectors Club, will introduce bottles and collecting. George Miller, a Newcastle resident, will discuss dairy bottles and Newcastle Dairy. Glen Moorhouse will talk about patent medicine bottles and Newcastle’s connection with Canada’s largest company, Northrop and Lyman. Bottles and related memorabilia will be on display.

Refreshments will be served after the talk.

Local artist, Jane Eccles, has painted many historical dresses in her career, including two dresses from notable Newcastle women, Olive Wilmot and Anna Vincent Massey, who were part of Newcastle’s “elite” at one time.

These two paintings have been donated to our Society by the artist and will be on display during History Month (February) along with their dresses which are part of our permanent collection.

In order for everyone to be able to see these dresses and their mirror images, we will be open on Family Day, Monday, February 19, from 9:30 a.m. to noon, so bring the family over to take a look. There will be special activities for kids. (up-coming history buffs!).

While you are here, take a look at what else we house in our Historical Room located at Newcastle’s “four corners” in the big red-brick Community Hall.

From behind-the-scenes preparation through to the jolly old elf himself, relive the 2023 parade in our slideshow and find yourself, your friends or your family enjoying the festivities on November 19, 2023!

Thanks to photographers Brian Jose, Willie Woo and Noemia Gomez.

Thanks to the generosity of one of our members, donations made before January 1, 2024 up to a total of $2000, will be matched. Join us in raising $4000 by January 1, 2024 to provide support for our digitization project.

Help us promote and preserve Newcastle history by making it more easily accessible and available to the community and beyond, through our digitization project. With the help of summer students and our volunteers, we’ve been busy cataloguing and documenting our collection – and we still have lots to do. We’re very excited to have recently started a trial of our new cataloguing system and hope to have an online display very soon to show you what it can do, and what your donations have helped achieve.

We’re looking forward to the New Year with hope and enthusiasm – and would be thrilled if you would join in the effort to help fund our activities, including a summer student for 2024. All donations made before the end of day December 31, up to a total of $2000 will be matched. Help us raise $4000 for 2024!

How to donate

You can donate in a number of ways:

• Send an e-transfer to tr*******@*****************al.ca – don’t forget to include your name and address in the message so that we can send you a tax receipt and thank you! Auto-deposit is enabled – no need for a password. 
• Online via our website
• Or, send a cheque to Newcastle Village and District Historical Society, 20 King Ave. W., Unit 3, Newcastle, ON L1B 1H7

All donations are tax-deductible and you will be issued an official receipt.

Thank you!

November 15, 2023
NVDHS General Meeting

Wednesday, November 15, 7:30 p.m.

Historical Room, Newcastle Community Hall
20 King Avenue West, Newcastle
Free, open to the public

Guest speaker John McFeeters is an avid detectorist and finder of historic artifacts. He will talk about his fascinating hobby and show us the various treasures he has located in our area.

John is a retired elementary school Principal and former science teacher, an avid outdoorsman and amateur naturalist, a birder, and a skilled artist and carver. He has done metal detecting on many public and private properties over the years, including abandoned homesteads, schools and churches. Locally, this includes Ebor House; the site of the Samuel Wilmot homestead and Fish Hatchery; and the original Massey foundry site. 

Samuel Wilmot Nature Area News (2020)

Free admission – light refreshments. All welcome! Contact us if you have any questions.

The July 29, 2023 celebration in pictures – from set up to musical performances. Spot yourself/your friends/your neighbours!

Thank you to photographers Brian Jose and Willie Woo!

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Community Hall

In May, NVDHS collaborated with Vatandoust Sirrs Real Estate Team to produce a special edition of their On The House magazine to honour the 100th anniversary of the Newcastle Community Hall. On The House is distributed free to all households in Newcastle, Orono and Wilmot Creek – you should have received your copy by now. If you haven’t, we have additional copies available at the historical room, so drop by any time we’re open (9:30 to noon, Tuesdays and Saturdays) to pick up your free copy.

The issue features 12 pages of our content featuring the Community Hall – from the construction of the Hall itself to some of the people involved in its history. We hope you will enjoy it. Our section is is also available for download as a PDF.

We would like to thank our sponsors who made the publication of this special edition of the newsletter possible: Alpha Pro Painters, Algoma Orchards, Treasure Hill, Lincoln Homes, Rona The Hardware Store, and The Old Newcastle House. Special thanks goes to Doug Sirrs for his support and openness to our collaboration.