The Town of Watford will commemorate a special milestone this weekend, and event organizers are hoping residents from outside of the community will join them in celebrating 150 years.
A three-day celebration for Watford's 150th anniversary will be held June 23 to 25. Most events will be held at Centennial Park and the East Lambton Community Complex (ELCC).
The planning committee, established in 2022, has spent nearly a year preparing festivities. "For a small town, we're really proud of our history and we'd like to showcase [it]," said Committee Chair Joe Manning. "We've done a lot of upgrades to the community over the last 150 years and we would just like to showcase that."
To kickstart the sesquicentennial, an opening ceremony will be held at Centennial Park in Watford on Friday, June 23, at 4 p.m. Manning said there will be children's activities, live entertainment, vendors, and beer tents featuring local craft brewers. "On Saturday, we are going to move the celebration to our downtown historical area where we're going to have a vendors market in the morning, a strawberry social in the early afternoon," he said. "Then all day after that, we're going to have buskers, chainsaw artists, and different musicians playing in different areas."
Sunday, June 25, will mark the actual anniversary date. During the day, an antique car and tractor show will be held from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.
The three-day celebration will wind down with a gala dinner Sunday evening, tickets must be purchased in advance. https://www.watford150.com/
Manning said throughout the weekend, historical displays will also be available at ELCC for people to learn about.
"The Lambton Heritage Museum has leant us a couple of items and some locals are donating items to display," he said.
Almost everything, aside from private purchases and the gala dinner, will be free after funding was received from the federal government and the Township of Warwick.
Warwick Mayor Todd Case said the township contributed $70,000 for the celebration.
"We are very much looking forward to welcoming everyone to Watford," said Case. "The organizing committee and all of the volunteers have done an outstanding job preparing for this birthday celebration and we can't thank hem enough for all of their efforts."
Watford was established in 1873. According to the Lambton Museum, the first settlement was known as "Browne's Corners" and the Village of Watford's first council meeting was held on January 7, 1874.
The municipalities of Watford and Warwick eventually amalgamated in the 90s after a request for more land was made in 1989.
