Tillsonburg

Famous for Broadway, a main street laid out 100 feet wide, and for Annandale House, a National Historic Site of Victorian splendour. Tobacco was once the town's largest industry; today it's one of the friendliest, most welcoming places in our four regions. Tillsonburg sits on Otter Creek where Highway 3 meets Highway 19, at the southern edge of Oxford County. Lake Lisgar in the middle of town has the Lake Lisgar Waterpark and Memorial Park on its shore, and the Station Arts Centre, made from two historic railway stations, holds the Saturday farmers' market from May to November.

George Tillson came from Massachusetts in 1825 and built a forge on Big Otter Creek; the settlement, first called Dereham Forge, was renamed Tillsonburg in 1836, the year Broadway was laid out wide enough for three-team logging wagons to turn. Tillsonburg became a town in 1872, with E. D. Tillson as its first mayor, and his 1880s mansion, Annandale, became a National Historic Site in 1997. Tobacco grew in the 1920s, and the tobacco auction exchange opened in 1958.

The 2021 census counted 8,229 homes in Tillsonburg. About two in three are single detached houses, about one in seven are in apartment buildings under five storeys, about one in sixteen are in taller apartment buildings, and semi-detached and row houses together make up about one in ten. About one in five were built in 1960 or earlier and about a quarter between 1961 and 1980. About a quarter were built between 1981 and 2000, about one in seven between 2001 and 2015, and about one in ten between 2016 and 2021. The town grew by 17.3% between the 2016 and 2021 censuses, to 18,615 people.

Highway 19 runs north from Tillsonburg to Highway 401 and Ingersoll, and Highway 3 runs east and west along the south of Oxford. Woodstock City Hall is about 38 km away by road, a drive of about 33 minutes, and London City Hall about 61 km, a drive of about 51 minutes. T:GO, the town's accessible bus, runs fixed routes around Tillsonburg on weekdays, and the Tillsonburg Municipal Airport is about 7 km north of town.

Memorial Park on the shore of Lake Lisgar has mature trees, a picnic pavilion, an accessible playground and the Kinsmen Bandshell, and the Lake Lisgar Waterpark next door has a heated pool with a 186-foot twister slide, open from Father's Day weekend to Labour Day. The Tillsonburg Community Centre at 45 Hardy Avenue has the indoor pool, the arenas, where the Tillsonburg Thunder play, a fitness centre and the Senior Centre, with tennis courts, ball diamonds and an outdoor recreation pad beside it. Annandale National Historic Site has a museum of more than 18,000 artifacts, the Trans Canada Trail runs through ParticiPark along Stoney Creek, and Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital is on Rolph Street. The Tillsonburg branch of the Oxford County Library is in town.

• Westfield Public School — JK to Grade 8. The public school for much of the town, including Hogarth Drive, Sycamore Drive, Seres Drive and Victoria Street, on Dereham Drive.
• South Ridge Public School — JK to Grade 8. The public school for the south-east, including Langrell Avenue, on South Ridge Road.
• Annandale Public School — JK to Grade 8. The public school for the streets around Herford Street, on Tillson Avenue.
• Glendale High School — Grades 9 to 12. The public secondary school for Tillsonburg, on Glendale Drive in Tillsonburg.
• Oliver Stephens Public School — Grades 1 to 8 in French immersion. The public French immersion school for Tillsonburg, 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 Tillsonburg's younger grades, on Frances Street in Tillsonburg.
• Monsignor J. H. O'Neil Catholic School — Grades 5 to 8. The Catholic elementary school for Tillsonburg'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 Tillsonburg, 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.