Newcastle, Ontario, Canada

🇨🇦 Newcastle is a community in the municipality of Clarington in Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. The community inherits the former name of the present-day municipality which it belongs to.

Newcastle is located about 80 km east of Toronto, and about 18 km east of Oshawa and Bowmanville on Highway 401. It is also the southern terminus of Highway 35 and Highway 115. It has been named one of the best small towns in Ontario, by Comfort Life, a website for retirement living in Canada.

History Newcastle was incorporated as a town in 1856. It remained a small community until the 1990s, when new residential development began and the population quickly swelled. Newcastle had a jail in the late 1800s. Maps of Newcastle from those years have not been discovered. Many have tried to find the location of this jail, but it is believed that it was either demolished or destroyed by the elements. There are jail cells in the Newcastle Community Hall.

Newcastle is surrounded by farms raising cattle, pigs, apples, grain, and corn. The town has a community hall, donated by the Massey family, one public high school (Clarke), two public elementary schools (Newcastle Public School and The Pines Senior Public School), one Catholic elementary school (St. Francis of Assisi), a post office, churches, a few plazas, several small parks, six restaurants, Tim Hortons, a recreation complex, an ice arena, a new fire hall, two grocery stores (Foodland and No Frills), professional offices, hardware stores, a marina on Lake Ontario, and a golf course (Newcastle Golf Course).

Post office The first Post office was opened in Newcastle in 1845 with John Short serving as Postmaster. Since that time, Newcastle has had ten postmasters with Charles Gray being the last (in 1991). Following Gray's retirement, Canada Post closed the Post Office since it was deemed too small. Most rural route and suburban mail is now handled by the Bowmanville Canada Post.

Town of Newcastle (1973–94) The name "Town of Newcastle" was used from 1973–94 for the municipality now called the Municipality of Clarington. The name was changed in 1994 to alleviate longstanding confusion between the municipality as a whole and the community of the same name. The community was commonly known as "Newcastle Village" to distinguish the two. It was also a confusing fact that Bowmanville had a larger population than "Newcastle Village", and it also housed the former Town of Newcastle's municipal offices, causing some to believe the town should have been called "Bowmanville" instead of "Newcastle" during that period.

Popular attractions • Docville Wild West Park is a mock Wild West town that offers its use to filmmakers and other paid visitors. • The Newcastle Santa Claus Parade held on a Sunday evening each November began in 2005. • Allin's Orchard & Country Market is an Apple farm which has been supplying produce since the early 1900s. • Algoma Orchards has moved from Whitby to Hwy 2,west of Newcastle in 2009. A large packing and storage facility was built and a retail store including a bakery is part of the large complex. • Shoppers Drug Mart store was built on the main south-east corner of the village in 2010-2011. This location housed many businesses over the last 100-150 including groceries, flower shop, furniture, bakery, woman's dress shop, offices and apartments on the 2nd and 3rd floors. The complete building was torn down and a house behind it to create the new complex in summer of 2010. The demolition was wildly unpopular with residents. The new complex houses the pharmacy, cosmetics, grocery items and other drug store items as well as the post office. • Rona hardware store was a tenant on the main south-west corner for many years and moved south to Toronto St. in 2009. They had also opened up a Lumber Center in September 2012. The site on King Street was vacant until July 2011 when a Home Hardware store opened. • A Gift of Art is a not-for-profit art gallery, shop, and teaching/events facility featuring the work of local artists. A Gift of Art displays work from artists in a variety of media, including paintings, pottery, woodcarving, photography, music, and much more. • The Port of Newcastle Marina is located on Lake Ontario, and is home to 260 slips available for boaters, along with a restaurant and rent-able canoes and paddle boats.

Nearest places • Newtonville, east • Orono, north • Bowmanville, west • Bondhead, south.