Maud | Norval, Ontario

I have visited plenty of small blink-and-you-miss-it communities across Canada and the United States. Some have a draw, while others make you think: is it even worth stopping? The funny thing is that I didn’t even consider going to the historic hamlet of Norval; it’s one of those places that I have heard of, driven through, but never fully considered stopping to get out and take photos. But here I am, willingly going to Norval, parking the car, getting out, cameras in hand, fully committed to capturing this historic hamlet and writing about it, which is saying something. For this trip, I took along my Mamiya m645 with the 80mm lens and a roll of Kodak Panatomic-X, which I developed in HC-110. I also brought along my Nikon D750 with the 28mm f/2.

Norval, like many pre-Confederation hamlets, is located along a river, the Credit River. The Credit originates from a headwater above Orangeville, runs all the way to Lake Ontario, and is one of the major waterways in the province. It first provided food, transport, and power to the Attawandaron, Haudenosaunee, and Anishinaabe. In 1818, the Anishnabeg ceded the territory under Treaty 19 to the Crown to facilitate the expansion of Upper Canada in the years after the Anglo-American War of 1812. Settlers from the United Kingdom and veterans of the War of 1812 applied for land grants. James MacNab, a veteran of the war who had fought across the Niagara region, along with his brother Alexander, secured land grants in Halton County, Esquining Township. Alexander settled on Lot 2, Concession III and built a sheep farm. James got land that bordered the Credit River and set up a grist mill and sawmill. Like many mills, a settlement grew up around them, taking the name McNab’s Mill and later McNabsville. It wasn’t until 1836, when the postal service arrived, that the name Norval was decided on; local legend says the name comes from John Home’s play Douglas. James lost his leg in an accident in 1829 and even raised a troop of men during the 1837 Rebellion, fighting on the Government’s side. However, when he went to claim expenses from the government, he was denied and was forced to sell his property in 1838 to Peter Adamson. Norval’s place between two larger communities kept it small, but it grew through the mid-century. Churches and businesses sprang up; the hamlet became a stop on the Toronto-Guelph Stagecoach route and soon had a few hotels. By the late 1840s, Norval supported a population of 200, with several mills (flour, oatmeal, woollen, flax, and grist), sawmills, taverns, a distillery, stores, a blacksmith, carriage works, foundry, bakery, ashery, harness shop, a mechanic’s institute, broom factory, and Orange Hall. The hamlet was further helped by the opening of the Toronto-Guelph Plank Road (today Highway 7) in 1851, and by the opening of a railway station by the Grand Trunk in 1856. Rail access helped move goods in and out of the community. Norval never grew large enough to be incorporated as a town, let alone a village, and always lived in the shadow of its neighbours. Noted Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery lived in Norval in the 1920s and 1930s, as her husband, a Presbyterian Minister, served at the local Presbyterian church. She even spoke fondly of the hamlet as her favourite place, second to Cavendish, PEI. The 20th Century was not kind to Norval; the biggest flour mill burned down in the 1930s, and Canadian National closed the train station the same decade. Hurricane Hazel destroyed the McNab grist mill in 1954 (its ruins were demolished in 1972 with the widening of Highway 7). In 1974, Norval was amalgamated into Halton Hills, but still sits at the edge of the town’s boundary, with Georgetown and Brampton nipping at either side.

I never planned to stop in Norval; I had a different hamlet I wanted to visit on this day and had a full post all set to drop images into. But then I got the call that my lens was ready for pickup at Halton Camera Exchange in Georgetown, and I realised the easiest thing to do was photograph something nearer to Georgetown. Now I already included Georgetown in this year’s 12 Months on Film cycle, which meant I could expose another roll in the historic town. There was also Acton, but that put me a bit further away. Glen Williams could have been another option, but in the morning, the light hits that area weirdly. And then I thought, what about Norval? I have driven through the area a few times, and I think I have been to the Presbyterian Church before. I certainly knew about the Presbyterian Church, as I heard about the dissolution of the congregation a few years back and also the efforts to build a museum of sorts in the Manse to Lucy Maud Montgomery. Google Maps showed some interesting buildings in the hamlet, so I thought, why not Norval? I checked through my Flickr account and found that I had never taken photos in Norval. I ended up parking my car near the convenience store before going out on foot. The community is not that big. I checked out McNab Memorial Park, crossing Highway 6 to get shots of the abandoned Nashville North (an interesting location for a country bar, but you do you, Norval?). Then it was walking up the south side of Highway Six, ducking down Winston Churchill before continuing west to the Lucy Maud Montgomery Garden, crossing again, and walking back east to my car. It wasn’t a long walk, and I was glad to only have 15 frames in the Mamiya and 24 in the Maxxum 5; any more, I would have struggled to finish off a roll of 36. Then it was back onto Highway 6 and into Georgetown to get the lens and a stop at a Canadian Tire before heading home.

Not every town has to be visited; Norval proved to be interesting enough, but not one that I could go back for photography. I’m happy with the images I got and with having the chance to explore the history of this hamlet, which is often forgotten in the grander history of Halton Hills. Also interesting to finally check out some connection to Lucy Maud Montgomery, and hopefully I’ll get around to reading Anne of Green Gables this year; it’s on my to-be-read stack. While I didn’t create an album for my trip to Norval, you can check out all my photos over on Flickr in my Random Halton Hills album.