The Legends of Newcastle
As we ramp up for the Newcastle Community Hall’s 100th Celebration, it is important that we reflect on the history ofNewcastle and the residents who have contributed to the success of the historical building – and the village community.
The Newcastle Community Hall, located in the heart of Newcastle, will celebrate its 100th Anniversary in July of 2023. Who better to start gathering history with, than Jean Rickard? She has been a lifetime resident of Newcastle and is now a lifetime member of the Historical Society. She is 99 years of age and has endless memories of the Community Hall that I can’t wait to share with you…
Jack Gordon; Newcastle’s Historian
There is an old African proverb, “when an elderly person dies, a library burns down”. On January 14, 2022, our local historian, Jacob“Jack”Gordon, in his 93rd year, passed away at Lakeridge Health in Bowmanville. During his life he collected, researched, and provided a tremendous amount of local history through artifacts, documents, art, and photographs from the Newcastle area. And most importantly, he was willing to share these items and his knowledge. So, essentially, Jack Gordon left a library.
Jack was born in Cochrane, Ontario in the same hospital and within a year of Tim Horton’s birth. At age 17, he left school and began working in construction. His company crushed rock to build highways in Northern Ontario. Eventually he ended up working in Pickering and later got hired at General Motors in Oshawa on Dec. 26, 1950. He worked in the new Parts & Service Department on Park Rd. South and stayed there until he retired in 1982.
In 1968, he came to Newcastle and looked at an old two storey house at 129 North Street that was owned by BobWalton. Bob lived next door and had the house rented out to several tenants and it was in poor condition. Jack and Gloria bought the home and slowly started fixing it up. Jack was interested in the history of our community and of course his home had plenty of history, being the former Tamblyn Tannery at one time.