Mount Elgin

Mount Elgin is a village on Plank Line, Highway 19, halfway between Ingersoll and Tillsonburg, in the south of South-West Oxford. The 5-acre park around the Mount Elgin Community Centre has a ball diamond, a tennis court and an accessible playground, and Hilltop Park in the newer streets off Graydon Drive has a fully accessible play structure and two beach volleyball courts built by local volunteers in 2025. The village has its own branch of the Oxford County Library.

Mount Elgin grew up in the old Dereham Township. The hamlet took its name when it gained a post office in 1851, after James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, then governor of the Province of Canada, and the Mount Elgin Cemetery dates from 1847. In 1975 Dereham and West Oxford townships joined the Village of Beachville to form the Township of South-West Oxford.

The census counts Mount Elgin with the farms around it, so these figures are estimates for the village. They come to about 160 homes, nearly all of them single detached houses. About four in ten were built in 1960 or earlier and about one in six between 1961 and 1980. About one in seven were built between 1981 and 2000, about a quarter between 2001 and 2015, and about one in twelve between 2016 and 2021.

Highway 19, Plank Line, runs through Mount Elgin, north to Ingersoll and Highway 401, about 13 km and 13 minutes away by road, and south to Tillsonburg, also about 13 km and 13 minutes away.

The park around the Mount Elgin Community Centre covers 5 acres, with a ball diamond, a concession building, washrooms, a tennis court and a fully accessible playground. Hilltop Park, entered near Graydon Drive and Peggy Avenue, has an accessible play structure built in 2019 for ages 5 to 12, two beach volleyball courts added in 2025 and open green space. The Mount Elgin branch of the Oxford County Library is in the village.

• Harrisfield Public School — JK to Grade 8. The public school for Mount Elgin, on Caffyn Street in Ingersoll.
• Ingersoll District Collegiate Institute — Grades 9 to 12. The public secondary school for Mount Elgin, on Alma Street in Ingersoll.
• Oliver Stephens Public School — Grades 1 to 8 in French immersion. The public French immersion school for Mount Elgin, 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 Mount Elgin's younger grades, on Frances Street in Tillsonburg.
• Monsignor J. H. O'Neil Catholic School — Grades 5 to 8. The Catholic elementary school for Mount Elgin'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 Mount Elgin, 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.