Morpeth is a community in Southern Ontario

Southern Ontario

Southern Ontario is a region of the province of Ontario, Canada that lies south of the French River and Algonquin Park. Depending on the inclusion of the Parry Sound and Muskoka districts, its surface area would cover between 14 to 15% of the province. It is the southernmost region of...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 that is between Blenheim

Blenheim, Ontario

Blenheim is a community located in south-central Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada, with a population of 4,800.- History :By 1783, there were French settlers in Detroit and Windsor. There were also settlers in the Niagara and Kingston region, but no real settlers to speak of in the Kent County region...

 and St. Thomas

St. Thomas, Ontario

St. Thomas is a city in southern , Ontario, Canada. It is the seat for Elgin County and gained its city charter on March 4, 1881.-History:...

 on Highway 3

Highway 3 (Ontario)

King's Highway 3, commonly referred to as Highway 3 and historically as the Talbot Trail, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario which travels parallel to the shore of Lake Erie. It has three segments, the first of which runs from the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor...

 in the municipality of Chatham-Kent

Chatham-Kent, Ontario

Chatham–Kent is a unitary authority in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Mostly rural, its centres of population are Blenheim, Chatham, Dresden, Ridgetown, Tilbury and Wallaceburg. Modern Chatham–Kent was created in 1998 by the merger of Kent County and its municipalities.- History :The former city of...

. It is located less than two hours away from Windsor

Windsor, Ontario

Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...

.

History

The community is named after Lord Morpeth, who was once a guest of Col. Thomas Talbot

Thomas Talbot

Thomas Talbot may refer to:* Thomas Talbot * Thomas Joseph Talbot, Roman Catholic bishop* Thomas Talbot, 2nd Viscount Lisle , English nobleman* Thomas Talbot , governor of Massachusetts...

.
Morpeth was an area of notable commerce in the 1880s. However when the railroad went through, it instead went through nearby Ridgetown, Ontario

Ridgetown, Ontario

Ridgetown is a community located in south-east Chatham-Kent, Ontario, Canada. It is home to the University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus. It has a population of roughly 3,500 and is one of many small farming communities in Chatham-Kent.-History:...

, which eventually grew faster than Morpeth.

Archibald Lampman

Archibald Lampman

Archibald Lampman, was a Canadian poet. "He has been described as 'the Canadian Keats;' and he is perhaps the most outstanding exponent of the Canadian school of nature poets." The Canadian Encyclopedia says that he is "generally considered the finest of Canada's late 19th-century poets in...

, one of Canada's Confederation Poets

Confederation Poets

"Confederation Poets" is the name given to a group of Canadian poets born in the decade of Canada's Confederation who rose to prominence in Canada in the late 1880s and 1890s. The term was coined by Canadian professor and literary critic Malcolm Ross, who applied it to four poets Charles G.D...

, and "generally considered the finest of Canada's late 19th-century poets in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

" (Canadian Encyclopedia) was born in Morpeth on November 17, 1861. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography

Dictionary of Canadian Biography

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is a dictionary of biographical entries for individuals who have contributed to the history of Canada. The DCB, which was initiated in 1959, is a collaboration between the University of Toronto and Université Laval...

says: "The Morpeth that Lampman knew was a small town set in the rolling farm country of what is now western Ontario, not far from the shores of Lake Erie

Lake Erie

Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...

. The little red church just east of the town, on the Talbot Road

Ontario Highway 3

King's Highway 3, commonly referred to as Highway 3 and historically as the Talbot Trail, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario which travels parallel to the shore of Lake Erie. It has three segments, the first of which runs from the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor...

, was his father’s charge."

Commerce

Forms of commerce

Commerce

While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...

 present in the village include an antique store, a zoo

Zoo

A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....

, a trailer park

Trailer park

A trailer park is a semi-permanent or permanent area for mobile homes or travel trailers. The main reasons for living in such trailer parks are the often lower cost compared to other housing, and the ability to move to a new area more quickly and easily, for example when changing jobs to another...

, and a marina

Marina

A marina is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats.A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo from freighters....

/campground. To the south, nearby Rondeau Provincial Park

Rondeau Provincial Park

Rondeau Provincial Park is a provincial park in southwestern Ontario, Canada, located on an 8 km long crescentic sand spit extending into Lake Erie. There are only two sand spits like this one in all of North America, one in Rondeau and one in Florida. Rondeau was established in 1894 as a response...

 provides recreational activities. Morpeth is also an attractive retirement

Retirement

Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours.Many people choose to retire when they are eligible for private or public pension benefits, although some are forced to retire when physical conditions don't allow the person to...

 community, with housing available specifically for this need.

Tourism

Greenview Aviaries, a park and zoo, is located less than a mile east of the village, on the former Highway 3. It attracts visitors from a wide area and has expanded over the years to house many additional animal species, including Big Cats (Tiger, Lions, Jaguars), Wild Game (Buffalo, Elk, Zebras), Primates, Reptiles and Birds.

Morpeth also sees a number of visitors traveling to nearby Rondeau Provincial Park and to Wildwood By the Lake, a family campground.
Visitors also stop in Morpeth at Talbot Antiques, Morpeth's one and only antique store, while antiquing.

External links

• Morpeth at Geographical Names of Canada
• Greenview Aviaries Park & Zoo
• Wildwood by the Lake