Durham Region trivia
21 facts and quiz questions about Brock, Ontario. Each one links to its source. A new fact of the day goes live every morning.
Fact of the day
Brock Quiz
Brock counted 12,567 people in the 2021 Census, up 7.9 percent from 2016, spread over 423 square kilometres.
Sources: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census Profile, Brock, Wikipedia, Brock, Ontario
Brock Sports
Rick MacLeish, who played for the Flyers in the 1970s and 1980s, was born in Cannington in 1950.
Source: Wikipedia, Cannington, Ontario
Brock History
Thomas Welsh, who ran the village grist mill. Around 1916 he supplied Sunderland with electricity in the evenings.
Source: Wikipedia, Sunderland, Ontario
Brock Quiz
Jones Corners, after property owners Arch and Lorenzo Jones. It was renamed Sunderland by 1871, when the Toronto and Nipissing Railway arrived.
Source: Wikipedia, Sunderland, Ontario
Brock History
It is thought to honour Charles Spencer, the third Earl of Sunderland, who helped Palatine German families resettle. Their descendants later received land in Brock Township.
Source: Wikipedia, Sunderland, Ontario
Brock Places
Near Sunderland, about 100 km from Toronto. It is one of very few populated places in the Greater Toronto Area close to the highway.
Source: Wikipedia, Sunderland, Ontario
Brock Quiz
The University of Guelph's Honey Bee Research Centre uses the isolated island in Lake Simcoe as a mating station for its Buckfast bee lines.
Source: Wikipedia, Thorah Island
Brock History
Simcoe named it Canise Island in 1793, after a local chief, and an 1856 treaty called it Plum Island. Neither name is used today.
Source: Wikipedia, Thorah Island
Brock People
Timothy Findley, in From Stone Orchard. Cannington's library, the Timothy Findley Memorial Branch, is named after him.
Source: Wikipedia, Cannington, Ontario
Brock History
The railway passed through Sunderland instead, around 1871. Vroomanton, once the larger village, lost much of its population and is now nearly a ghost town.
Sources: Wikipedia, Sunderland, Ontario, Wikipedia, Brock, Ontario
Brock Quiz
Brock is officially the Smallmouth Bass Capital of Canada. The Trent-Severn Waterway forms part of its northern border, with five locks in the township.
Source: Wikipedia, Brock, Ontario
Brock Quiz
It was known as Calder's Mills, Mill Town and Milton. It became Beaverton when its post office opened in 1835. The village sits at the mouth of the Beaver River.
Source: Wikipedia, Beaverton, Ontario
Brock Quiz
Cannibal Girls. Beaverton played the made-up town of Farnhamville, and the Strand Theatre, the library and the bridge all appear on screen.
Source: Wikipedia, Beaverton, Ontario
Brock Culture
The Cannington Haunted Attraction, a collection of Halloween-themed activities in the park.
Source: Wikipedia, Cannington, Ontario
Brock History
British prime minister George Canning. The settlement was first called McCaskill's Mills, after a mill-owning family, and took the new name when its post office opened in 1849.
Source: Wikipedia, Cannington, Ontario
Brock People
Dr. Joseph Oliver practised in the community for 50 years. Stories of his house calls in every season are legendary, and his 1904 home on River Street still stands.
Source: Wikipedia, Sunderland, Ontario
Brock History
On the steamer Emily May, which sailed daily between Beaverton and the Bell Ewart station of the Northern Railroad. Stagecoaches ran daily to Whitby and Oshawa.
Source: Wikipedia, Beaverton, Ontario
Brock Quiz
NHL broadcaster Foster Hewitt is among Beaverton's notable people, along with editorial cartoonist Duncan Macpherson and sculptor Ron Baird.
Source: Wikipedia, Beaverton, Ontario
Brock Numbers
Brock skews older: its median age in 2016 was 46.5, compared with 41.3 for Ontario. About 94 percent of residents spoke English as their first language.
Source: Wikipedia, Brock, Ontario
Brock Quiz
Major General Sir Isaac Brock, a hero of the War of 1812. His estate received free land in the township for his service.
Source: Wikipedia, Brock, Ontario
Brock History
The Old Stone Church, built in 1853, is a National Historic Site of Canada.
Source: Wikipedia, Beaverton, Ontario