Rural Norwich

Rural Norwich covers almost all of the township: about 41,700 hectares of farmland around Norwich, Otterville and Burgessville. Dairy farms fill the north, and tobacco, vegetables and ginseng are grown in the south. Oxford Centre and Springford are small villages among the farms, each with its own park and hall, and Curries, Holbrook, Milldale, Hawtrey, Eastwood, Newark, Rosanna, Cornell and Rock's Mills are hamlets. Oxford Centre keeps an 1860 brick church and the old Stage Coach House on Old Stage Road.

Norwich and Dereham townships were first part of Norfolk County and were named after towns in Norfolk, England; in 1798 they were moved into the new Oxford County. Quaker families settled the township from 1811. In 1975 the Village of Norwich and the townships of East Oxford, North Norwich and South Norwich joined to form today's Township of Norwich, which had 11,151 people in 2021.

The 2021 census counted 3,761 homes in Norwich Township. Leaving out Norwich, Otterville and Burgessville, the countryside, its villages and its hamlets had about 2,030 homes, nearly all of them single detached houses. About four in ten were built in 1960 or earlier and nearly a third between 1961 and 1980. About one in six were built between 1981 and 2000, and about one in eight in 2001 or later.

Oxford Road 59 crosses the township from north to south, from Woodstock through Burgessville and Norwich toward Highway 3, and Oxford Road 13 links Otterville with Tillsonburg and the south-west. Woodstock and Tillsonburg are each a short drive from most of the township.

Oxford Centre Park is at 505386 Old Stage Road, beside the Oxford Centre Hall and the Pioneer Rooms in the old schoolhouse, which served the community for 94 years. Springford Park is on Main Street West in Springford, next to the Springford Hall, and Curries Park is on Highway 59. Norwich's arena and splash pad and Otterville's pool are close by.

• East Oxford Public School — JK to Grade 8. The public school for the north of the township, including Oxford Centre and Highway 2, on Old Stage Road.
• Emily Stowe Public School — JK to Grade 8. The public school for the farms around Norwich, in Norwich.
• College Avenue Secondary School — Grades 9 to 12. The public secondary school for Rural Norwich, on College Avenue in Woodstock.
• Oliver Stephens Public School — Grades 1 to 8 in French immersion. The public French immersion school for the township, on Fyfe Avenue in Woodstock; it also has an English program.
• St. Patrick's Catholic School — JK to Grade 8. The Catholic elementary school for the north of the township, on Parkinson Road in Woodstock.
• St. Joseph's Catholic School and Monsignor J. H. O'Neil Catholic School — JK to Grade 4 and Grades 5 to 8. The Catholic elementary schools for the farms around Norwich, 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 the township, 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.