It’s time to learn about Milton street names!
Each week, we speak with Milton Historical Society President John Challinor II to gather information and details about the namesakes of our roads. If you weren’t aware, he and the late great historian, Jim Dills, wrote the book on Milton street names, writing Milton Streets back in 2007.
Recently, we covered the listener-suggested Beaver Court, and Cardinal Court. This week, we’re focusing on Hampshire Way and McColl Court. Starting with Hampshire, he says it was named after a former local sheriff and politician from Esquesing.
Esquesing is now where Milton and Halton Hills meet. Instead of becoming a part of the township of Halton Hills like Georgetown, Acton, and other smaller hamlets, Esquesing essentially disappeared. Challinor says this is primarily because prior to Halton becoming a Region in the 70’s, it was a County. It was comparable to Esquesing, and when the shift happened, that kind of phased out the now defunct area.
Moving on to McColl Court, Challinor says McColl was a local doctor who was very active in the community.
The Medical Officer of Health role is no longer a Milton responsibility. It is now taken on by the Halton Region and Dr. Hamidah Meghani.
If you’re looking to understand how Milton’s streets are named, you should check out the book written by Challinor and Dills. Published by the Milton Historical Society back in 2007, it sold out in about six weeks and has since been long out of print. That said, according to Challinor, you can still find a copy at the Milton Public Library. With nearly 15-years having passed since the initial publication, and the extensive town growth in that time, an updated book is likely to come.
You can also take a walk with the late Jim Dills down Milton’s Main Street in 2002.
If you have a suggestion on what you’d like to learn about next week, let us know! We’re currently working on names that we find interesting. You can message our Facebook page, Twitter account, Instagram page, or even email us at News1013@LocalRadio.ca. Otherwise, we’ll just continue asking about local street names that we find interesting.
If you have a news tip or story idea, you can now send us a heads up via email at News1013@LocalRadio.ca. If you’d like to get ahold of me personally, shoot me a message at Cameron.Wilkinson@LocalRadio.ca. We’re in the business of content creation, so no idea is a bad idea.
