The Cheltenham Brick Works
An easy walk in what is one of Ontario's old ghost towns. Being a metal detectorist I was fortunate to locate the remains of the old village in the woods. There is not much left but I was still able to find some interesting artifacts. The posted coords are for parking.
Cheltenham Brick Works
The name says it all. During the late Victorian and early 20th century periods, brick was the predominant building material in Southern Ontario.
Cheltenham Brick Works was a tiny worker's community, situated between the villages of Cheltenham and Terra Cotta. Due to an abundance of 'Medina Shale', a hard clay, renowned for it's excellent brick-making qualities, a number of brick works were established in the area and in 1914, one of them, the Interprovincial Brick Company, acquired the site in order to expand their operations.
The company built a massive set of six downdraft kilns and one continuous burning kiln which enabled them to produce 90,000 bricks at a time. Rather than living in nearby Cheltenham or Terra Cotta, many of the workers preferred to pay the much lower rent of $13.00 per month to live in one of the 14 houses also located on the site.
The Brick Works Today
Content: © Jeri Danyleyko, Susan Foster & Yvan Charbonneau
Parking Area: You can park at 43° 44.455N 079° 55.829W an access point to the Caledon Trailway on Mississauga Road.
Staging Area: Have a look at the interpretive sign that depicts the area at a certain year. What year is on the sign?
Math Area: Divide the year by 1000 and add it to these coordinates: 43° 41.969N 079° 54.091W.
Hiking Area: Start heading west down the trail. Make some time for apples, raspberries and deer watching.
Cache Area: The cache is located only 15 meters from the trail. You can see where more badlands are forming in the nearby clay.
The cache contains the usual goodies and a log with pencil. Please re hide as found. Lots of bugs in summer, lots of snow in winter.