OUR COMMUNITY
Before 1900 people would visit the Beaches area by paddle boat steamer from downtown Toronto. From the foot of Yonge Street, passengers seeking a holiday from the bustling city would disembark at a wharf at the bottom o Victoria Street Here families would have holidays and enjoy the forests and park areas
Courcelette Road was originally called Chester Avenue and in 1900 only had 3 cottages and one house. In those days our school was an open field, with wild flowers. In fact, this area used to be known for its crop of wild strawberries. The street was renamed on February 12, 1917. To avoid duplication with Chester Avenue located in Toronto.
Some people though the street should be named after the only person who owned a house on the street at that time, but thought it better to name it in honour of the six men who died in World War 1 Battle of Courcelette in France (September 15, 1916) (photo of school and area in 1900-1916)
Aside from the Battle of Courcelette, our street is also claim to fame from 1922, when a volunteer fire brigade was formed. A bell to signal the volunteers to a fire was located outside the house of one of the volunteers, Alex Norrington who lived at 132 Courcelette road.
COURCELETTE SCHOOL.
In 1910 $16,000 was allocated for the purchase of land and for the construction of the school. When Chester was renamed Courcelette in 1917, the school also became known as Courcelette.
Miss Mary Pepper was the first teacher when the school opened in 1911. She had 49 students , who she taught in one room, and she taught all the grades herself. Since there was no other school in the area, students who later went to Birchcliff or Blantyre had to walk to school everyday, sometimes from as far away as 5 or 6 kilometres.
Soon the school outgrew its one room and classed were expanded o the basement and a second room. Finally in 1919 4 more rooms were added in 1919.
Miss Pepper taught at the school for 8 years, during which time there was no running water at the school, an no inside toilets, an no heating beyond a wood stove which she had to stoke with wood during the cold winter months.
If students were thirsty, they went o a bucket at the back of the classroom, and dipped a tine cup for a drink. If students had to go to the bathroom, they had to venture outside in the sub zero weather to the nearest outhouse.
In those days the school playground was divided into an area for the boys and girls separated by a picket fence.
The school's lights were originally provided by gas burner, until electricity was available to the school property.
In 1949, Miss Pepper was interviewed about her times at the school and noted that the old furnace at the school didn't work very well…" Sometimes the rooms were so cold, the water froze in the pails…" She often had to let the children go home because of the cold and some days she took her class down around the furnace to warm them up.
In 1951 more rooms were added until 1957, when a decision was made to build a new school to accommodate the growing population. Although the new building involved the demolishing of the belfry, the original school bell can be seen today hanging proudly at the Fallingbrook entrance. In 1958 at the official "reopening" a ceremony was held to commemorate the students who had served during the war. In their honour, an honour role and memorial painting were unveiled at the entrance.
BATTLE OF COURCELETTE.
Inscribed on a simple granite memorial in Courcelette France is a dedication to the soldiers who fought in the Battle of Courcelette
THE CANADIAN CORPS BORE A VALIANT PART IN FORCING BACK THE GERMANS ON THESE SLOPES DURING THE BATTLES OF THE SOMME SEPT. 3RD - NOV. 18TH 1916
When the Canadian Corps moved from the Ypres Salient to the Somme River region at the beginning of September 1916, its first major action was the Battle of Flers-Courcelette - a two-army assault launched by Sir Douglas Haig on September 15.
In the offensive that began at dawn, the Canadian Corps assaulted on a two-kilometre front near the village of Courcelette. Advancing behind a creeping barrage (a tactic only recently adopted by the artillery), the infantry was aided by the "new engine of war", the armoured tank, which frequently threw the enemy into complete confusion. The attack went well. By 8:00 a.m. the main objective, a defence bastion known as the Sugar Factory, was taken, and the Canadians pushed ahead to Courcelette.
Numerous German counter-attacks were successfully repulsed and by the next day the position was consolidated. It is fitting, therefore, that the memorial to mark the 11 weeks of bloody fighting by Canadians on the battlefields of the Somme should be sited at the scene of their initial victory in that long and costly struggle.
In the weeks that followed, the three Canadian divisions again and again attacked a series of German entrenchments. The final Canadian objective was that "ditch of evil memory", Regina Trench. It repeatedly defied capture, and when the first three divisions were relieved in the middle of October, Regina Trench was closer, but still not taken.
When the newly arrived 4th Division took its place in the line, it faced an unbelievable ordeal of knee-deep mud and violent, murderous, enemy resistance. However, despite the almost impenetrable curtain of fire, on November 11, the Division captured Regina Trench only to find it reduced to a mere depression in the chalk.
A week later, in the final attack at the Somme, the Canadians advanced to Desire Trench - a remarkable feat of courage and endurance. The 4th Division then rejoined the Corps opposite Vimy Ridge.
There were no further advances that year. The autumn rains turned the battlefield into a bog and the offensive staggered to a halt. The line had been moved forward only ten kilometres; the Allies had suffered 600,000 casualties and 236,000 Germans were killed. Well might the Germans refer to the Battle of the Somme as das Blutbad - the blood bath.
The Somme had cost Canada 24,029 casualties, but it was here that the Canadians confirmed their reputation as hard-hitting shock troops.
"The Canadians," wrote Lloyd George, "played a part of such distinction that thenceforward they were marked out as storm troops. For the remainder of the war they were brought along to head the assault in one great battle after another. Whenever the Germans found the Canadian Corps coming into the line they prepared for the worst."
