page_title: Glen Williams, Ontario
section_title: Culture and economy
hierarchical_section_title: Glen Williams, Ontario / Culture and economy
caption_attribution_description: English: A gold pocket watch made by the Elgin National Watch Company of Elgin, Illinois, cir.1919, with the back open showing the movement of the watch. There is an inscription on the inside back cover "Presented by Esquesing Township and Citizens of Glen Williams to Private Wilson Heaton - 92 - Battalion - 1919" Private Wilson Heaton was born in Southowram, Halifax, UK but moved to Canada, living in Glen Williams, Esquesing Township, Haton County, Ontario. He enlisted with the 92nd Battalion (48th Highlanders), Canadian Expeditionary Force, and fought in the trenches in World War I in Europe. He returned to work as a stone cutter in the quarries around Glen Williams after the war ended.
context_page_description: Glen Williams is a hamlet in the Credit River valley in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is part of Halton Hills in the Halton Regional Municipality. Glen Williams is home to many visual artists, contains a collection of artist's studios and is a major draw to the area. Glen Williams has a compact community core that includes commercial uses, a restaurant and bakery, a community centre, parks, churches and homes. The character of the hamlet of Glen Williams is largely defined by the heritage buildings, which help give Glen Williams its distinctive look and feel. These buildings help create an environment that is distinctive and lays the foundation for a cohesive community. The Credit River which flow through the village extends over 1,500 km from the Niagara Escarpment, emptying into Lake Ontario at Port Credit, Mississauga. Glen Williams is also home to many species of birds, mammals and fish, with the river providing an exemplary habitat for them.
context_section_description: Famed Group of Seven artist A. J. Casson often spent summers in Glen Williams, which he used as a base to paint local scenes.
  The village itself is the subject of Casson's 1938 oil on canvas, "Street in Glen Williams", a leafy, autumnal portrait of a quiet road in the hamlet, which sold at auction in Toronto on June 1, 2010 for a record $542,800, including buyer's premium, the highest such valuation ever accorded a Casson canvas. Casson, who joined the Group of Seven in 1926, "recorded small towns in every season," Canadian art critic and historian Paul Duval wrote in 1980, "and Street in Glen Williams is unquestionably his key autumn portrayal." Other paintings of Casson's time in and around Glen Williams include "Country Road - Glen Williams", "Village Street October", and "Farmhouse near Glen Williams 1938", now in the Firestone Collection of Canadian Art at The Ottawa Art Gallery.
  Today Glen Williams is a predominantly residential community that provides housing for residents employed in other areas. Glen Williams is home to many visual artists, contains a collection of artist's studios and is a major draw to the area. Glen Williams has a compact community core that includes commercial uses, a restaurant and bakery, the community centre (Town Hall) and other recreational and community functions. This hamlet core is viewed as an important component of the hamlet character. All commercial and community uses are focused in this area.
  The Williams Mill Visual Arts Centre and Glen Williams Glass are both housed in the heritage site of the Williams Mill. The Williams Mill provides studio space for artists of various media including ceramics, drawing, fibre, glass, jewellery, printmaking, sculpture and offers visitors the opportunity to interact directly with the artists, experience their work in progress and purchase a variety of art. The gallery showcases the works of other renowned artists and craftspeople. Art classes, lectures and workshops for all ages offered year-round in the Arts Education Centre. Glen Williams Glass is a  collective studio made up of seven independent glass artists and is also part of The Williams Mill. In addition to its function as an artist's co-operative, Glen Williams Glass regularly welcomes non-members to the studio.
  The former Beaumont Knitting Mill is now home to Beaumont Mill Antiques & Collectibles, a multi vendor Antique and Collectibles Market offering a broad assortment of collectibles and antiques, including furniture, toys, glassware, cookware, books, decorative items, and vinyl records. Adjacent to the mill is the Kids & Classics Boatshops Museum, a non-profit organization, which focuses on the restoration of classic wood boats, where volunteers learn and teach skills, working with kids-at-risk through a skiff building program for youth. In the space of a weekend, four children build and launch a skiff (the Bevin's skiff), get exposed to the world of boatbuilding and learn to have confidence in themselves and what they can do. Sale of the skiffs built by the youth helps fund the program.
  Sheridan Nurseries operates their "Glen Williams Farm & Distribution Centre" along the hamlet's eastern boundary. The 370 ha (910 acres) farm is their main growing facility and produces more than 800 hardy nursery stock varieties, ranging from evergreens, deciduous trees and shrubs. The Distribution Centre supplies its own nine garden centres in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and ships regularly to destinations in Eastern Canada and the U.S. Midwest to New England. Sheridan Nurseries has been selected as the Glen Williams Citizen of the Year in 2007, 2010 & 2011.
caption: A gold Elgin pocket watch, cir.1919 - The inside back cover is inscribed: "Presented by Esquesing Township and Citizens of Glen Williams to Private Wilson Heaton - 92 - Battalion - 1919" Private Wilson Heaton enlisted with the 92nd Battalion (48th Highlanders), Canadian Expeditionary Force, and fought in the trenches in World War I in Europe. He returned to work as a stone cutter in the quarries of Glen Williams, Ontario after the war ended.
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