Norwich Village

Quaker settlers shaped Norwich's quiet character, and dairy farms still surround it. It's a village of heritage and calm. Norwich sits on Oxford Road 59 at the centre of Norwich Township, south-east of Woodstock. Harold Bishop Park in the middle of the village has a large splash pad, a pavilion and a barrier-free play structure, and the Norwich Community Centre's Nor-Del Arena seats more than 700. The Norwich and District Museum is built around an 1889 Quaker meeting house.

In 1810 Peter Lossing and Peter De Long, Quakers from New York State, bought about 15,000 acres here, and Lossing settled in 1811. The name likely comes from Norwich, New York, where the first families came from. A frame meeting house was built in 1817. In the 1860s Norwich farmers were the first in Canada to make cheese in factories. In 1975 the Village of Norwich joined the townships of East Oxford, North Norwich and South Norwich to form the Township of Norwich.

The census counts most of the village in areas of its own, so these figures are close to the village line. They come to about 1,230 homes, more than four in five of them single detached houses, with apartments making up about one in eleven. About four in ten were built in 1960 or earlier and about one in five between 1961 and 1980. About one in seven were built between 1981 and 2000, about one in six between 2001 and 2015, and about one in twelve between 2016 and 2021.

Oxford Road 59 runs through Norwich, north toward Burgessville and Woodstock City Hall, about 27 km away by road, a drive of about 27 minutes, and south toward Otterville and Highway 3. Tillsonburg is to the south-west.

Harold Bishop Park at 13 North Court Street West has a splash pad, open from Father's Day weekend to mid-September, a small pavilion, picnic areas and a barrier-free play structure. Dillon Park is beside the Norwich Community Centre at 53 Stover Street South, where the Nor-Del Arena has an NHL-length ice surface, seating for more than 700 and the Optimist Hall. The Norwich and District Museum and Archives has local history galleries, a working blacksmith shop, agricultural barns and a restored 19th-century farmhouse, and the Norwich branch of the Oxford County Library is at 10 Tidey Street.

• Emily Stowe Public School — JK to Grade 8. The public school for Norwich, on Jerdon Street.
• College Avenue Secondary School — Grades 9 to 12. The public secondary school for Norwich, on College Avenue in Woodstock.
• Oliver Stephens Public School — Grades 1 to 8 in French immersion. The public French immersion school for Norwich, on Fyfe Avenue in Woodstock; it also has an English program.
• St. Joseph's Catholic School — JK to Grade 4. The Catholic elementary school for Norwich's younger grades, on Frances Street in Tillsonburg.
• Monsignor J. H. O'Neil Catholic School — Grades 5 to 8. The Catholic elementary school for Norwich's older grades, on Quarter Town Line in Tillsonburg.
• Holy Family French Immersion Catholic School — SK to Grade 8 in French immersion. The Catholic French immersion school for all of Oxford, on Oxford Street in Woodstock.
• St. Mary's Catholic High School — Grades 9 to 12. The Catholic secondary school for Norwich, on Juliana Drive in Woodstock.
• Woodstock Collegiate Institute — Grades 9 to 12. Thames Valley's public French immersion secondary school, on Riddell Street in Woodstock.