Embro

Embro is a village in the north-east of Zorra, north-west of Woodstock, best known for the Embro Highland Games, held each summer by the Zorra Caledonian Society. The old Embro Town Hall on Huron Street, once the municipal office and the local jail, now holds the Thistle Theatre and the Embro library. The Embro-Zorra Community Centre has an arena seating 600, and Memorial Park has a splash pad, a playground and a basketball court beside the lit diamond at Matheson Park.

Embro was settled by Scottish families who came to Zorra from the 1830s, and the Township says its name most likely comes from Embo, near Golspie in Scotland, where many of them came from. George Leslie Mackay, the missionary honoured as a national hero in Taiwan, was born near Embro in 1844. In 1975 West Zorra joined East Nissouri and North Oxford to form the Township of Zorra.

The census counts Embro with some of the farms around it, so these figures are estimates for the village. They come to about 310 homes, about nine in ten of them single detached houses. About four in ten were built in 1960 or earlier and about a quarter between 1961 and 1980. About one in six were built between 1981 and 2000, about one in twenty between 2001 and 2015, and about one in nine between 2016 and 2021.

Oxford Roads 6 and 17 link Embro with Woodstock City Hall, about 17 km away by road, a drive of about 18 minutes. Thamesford and Ingersoll are to the south.

The Embro-Zorra Community Centre on 35th Line, opened in 1976 and renovated in 2010, has an arena seating 600 and two halls, with a playground, soccer pitches, a lawn bowling club and a pavilion in the park beside it. Matheson Park on Argyle Street has the lit main ball diamond and a canteen, Memorial Park on St. Andrews Street has a splash pad, a playground and a basketball court, and Wallace Park on John Street has a new playground and a small pavilion. The Embro Town Hall at 135 Huron Street is home to the Thistle Theatre and the Embro branch of the Oxford County Library, and the Embro Fall Fair and the Embro Truck and Tractor Pull are held each year.

• Zorra Highland Park Public School — JK to Grade 8. The public school for Embro, on 37th Line just outside the village.
• Woodstock Collegiate Institute — Grades 9 to 12. The public secondary school for Embro, on Riddell Street in Woodstock, and Woodstock's public French immersion secondary school.
• Roch Carrier French Immersion Public School — Grades 1 to 8 in French immersion. The public French immersion school for Embro, on Sloane Street in Woodstock.
• St. Michael's Catholic School and St. Patrick's Catholic School — JK to Grade 8. The Catholic elementary schools for Embro, on Devonshire Avenue and Parkinson Road in Woodstock.
• 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 Embro, on Juliana Drive in Woodstock.