The Banner Returns
A Chatsworth newspaper, back after more than a century
By David Ellis · · 3 min read
In 1896, Chatsworth got a second newspaper.
The village already had one: George Blyth's Chatsworth News. That year a rival weekly came along, the Chatsworth Banner. A local history column first printed in the Owen Sound Sun Times in 1996 remembers a village with two papers, "Blyth's Chatsworth News, and Nelson's Chatsworth Banner," bringing readers "all the news of the locality and the world beyond."
Picture that for a moment. A village at the crossroads that became Highways 6 and 10. According to the same Sun Times column, its main street once boasted 12 stores, along with a foundry, a sash and door factory, blacksmith shops and two drug stores. And there were enough news and enough readers to keep two weekly papers going at once.
The Sun Times column also recalls a fire in 1873 that destroyed much of the business district, and the village being incorporated in 1904 with Thomas McGill as its first reeve. The Banner reported on that young village for at least a decade and a half. The Archives of Ontario still holds original issues of the Chatsworth Banner from 1909 to 1911, an incomplete run, but real pages from a real Chatsworth paper, kept safe more than a century later.
When the Banner finally stopped printing, and what became of the name afterward, is a story we're still piecing together from the archives. We'll share what we find.
Why bring it back?
Chatsworth today looks very different. On January 1, 2000, under Ontario's municipal restructuring, the Village of Chatsworth joined Holland and Sullivan townships to form the Township of Chatsworth. It's a big, mostly rural place that takes in Walters Falls, Williamsford, Desboro, Dornoch, Holland Centre, Keady, Massie and many more communities, each with its own history.
The regional outlets, from Owen Sound to Hanover, cover us when they can, and we're grateful for that. But a township this size deserves a paper of its own: one that goes to the council meeting, knows where Concession 3A is, and puts the fall fair on the front page because that's where it belongs.
So we're reviving a name Chatsworth already knows. The Chatsworth Banner is back.
What you can expect
We're starting small and building as we go. Here's what we plan to cover:
- Council and elections. What's on the agenda, what was decided and what it means for your tax bill. This month that means the municipal election on Monday, October 26, when Chatsworth chooses its next council.
- A community calendar. Agricultural Society meetings, church suppers, Legion events, library programs, fundraisers. If it's happening in the township, we want to list it.
- Public safety and health. Police news, ambulance and paramedic services, and public health updates you can actually use.
- Roads. Construction, closures and how township roads get fixed (or don't).
- Heritage. A series called Our Hamlets, telling the stories of the communities that make up Chatsworth, one at a time. The Banner's own history will be part of it.
Most of all, we want to hear from you. Tell us what's happening down your sideroad, who deserves a story, and what we got wrong. And if there's an old copy of the Banner in your attic or a family scrapbook, we'd love to see it.
A local paper only works if the community has a hand in it. That was as true in 1896 as it is today.
Welcome back to the Banner.
Your turn: What stories do you want the Banner to cover? Email news@chatsworthbanner.ca or use the tip form on our site.
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