70
The North Grenville Times
The Voice of North Grenville
% OFF*
ON SELECT FRAMES
*see store for details Book your eye exam online laurieropticalkemptville.com
Kemptville Eye Exam Clinic
Kemptville Mall
info@laurieropticalkemptville.com
www.laurieropticalkemptville.com
The Voice of North Grenville
Reaching by direct mail 8,500 homes and businesses in North Grenville www.ngtimes.ca
July 27 ,2023
Vol. 11 No. 29
Country roads Specializing in financial planning & investments STEVENS CREEK DECOR CENTRE HUNTER DOUGLAS GALLERY WITH OVER 40 WINDOW TREATMENT DISPLAYS!
samantha.rivet-stevenson @rbc.com 613-816-9697
2678 COUNTY RD 43 KEMPTVILLE
613-706-1250 Major to minor. Rideau and Sanders, when Rideau was Highway 16, the main road between Ottawa and Prescott.
NOW IN STOCK
Compact Tractors and Cub Cadet Mowers
Service available on all makes and models
www.bdlequipment.com
613. 209.3122
10510 Loughlin Ridge Rd, Mountain,Ontario
July 27, 2023
by David Shanahan When Oxford-on-Rideau was first surveyed in 1791, a grid pattern was used to divide the land into concessions and lots. That sounds simple, doesn’t it? Ten concessions, each one mile in depth, running south from the Rideau to the border with Edwardsburgh and Augusta Townships, and each concession divided into thirty lots running from west to east: a simple grid. But time was to show that nothing was that simple, and there were numerous attempts to sort out problems which arose for settlers in the decades after that first survey.
whereas the Surveyor General has Described the Lots as fronting one way so that the Settlers may have been misled to Settle in the rear of their Lots...” In other words, the houses were a mile away from the road. This same problem arose in South Gower in the 1840's, and even in 1846, Kemptville resident, Truman Hurd, was asking the Surveyor General’s office: “Are road allowances on the front or base line of concessions in Oxford?” Roads continued to be a source of confusion through the decades. As the population grew in the late 1820's, land sales were becoming
One major complication was discovered when new settlers built their homes on their 200-acre lot. In 1821, in response to desperate petitions from settlers in Oxford, an Order-in-Council was passed laying out the main issue for the farmers. It seems that the original survey had stated that the concession road was meant to run along the front of the concession, but settlers had been told to build their homes along the rear instead. As the Order stated: “It appears from the Quebec Plan of Oxford that the Line of Road was designed to be the front between two Concessions
1
confused and a proper survey was needed. John West, D.S., produced a map of Oxford, dated 1836, which contains some fascinating details about the road system in Oxford in 1836, though it is oriented to the south, and so is "upside down" compared to normal alignments in later maps. The hamlet of Kemptville is the only settlement shown, as Oxford Mills had not yet been surveyed, and Burritt's Rapids seems to have been sited entirely on the north side of the Rideau. However, there is no indication of the bridge and Canal cont'd on page 2
20
%
OFF
Pizza Tuesday & Wednesday TAKE OUT ONLY
613-258-6821
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Mon. to Thurs.: 7.30am to 9pm Frid. and Sat.: 7.30am to 10pm Sunday: 7:30am - 8:00pm
2794 County Rd 43, Kemptville
www.kemptvillefamilyrestaurant.com
www.ngtimes.ca