I knew that the village of Limehouse is located in an especially beautiful area before my son and I traveled up there to hike. My grandfather built his house on the edge of Limehouse (and Stewardtown) because he liked the area so much and as a boy this meant that I took many day-long excursions exploring the local geography.
I also had read about the paint factory that use to operate here a century ago. The Toronto Daily Mail from June 24th, 1893 reports that, “John Newton & Sons manufacture mineral paints for outbuildings and fences. These paints are of seven different colours and are fare proof as well as permanent.” And, in researching further, I found out that some of these pigment colours were created locally from the red and blue clay! (As an interesting aside: Another source of one of their seven colours was the chocolate brown, bog iron ore, dug in Conestogo. Overall this paint was of a quality that it held a wide market, traveling across the commonwealth from Canada and the United States, to England and even Australia).
