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Attercliffe
Attercliffe is a tiny hamlet located in the northwest corner of Wainfleet Township. Situated very near the Welland River the tiny settlement evolved to serve the lumber industry. A hoop mill, a shingle mill and a saw mill were located here.
Logs were rafted downriver and planed lumber and wooden shingles were loaded on barges at Port Davidson, just east of Attercliffe on the Welland River. Here the lumber would head to markets in the U.S. across the Niagara River from Chippawa.
The first post office in Attercliffe was named Caistor opened in 1853 a short distance from the hamlet on the Caistor-Gainsborough townline. From 1865 until its closing in 1916 the post office was known as Attercliffe.
Other businesses sprang up in the community and soon the hamlet of Attercliffe had a buggy and harness manufacturing shop begun in 1864 by James Miller, a tannery, two hotels, two stores several brick kilns and a bank that operated from 1919 until 1923. In 1878 a cheese factory was built and did a thriving business until it burned down in 1933.
The road through the hamlet of Attercliffe is known as the Old Talbot Trail. This road built in 1840 along an old Indian trail was one of the first roads into the interior of Upper Canada and was built to encourage early settlement and was an important stagecoach route.
The Attercliffe picnic grounds, which began as a modest picnic site for Sunday School children from the Attercliffe Methodist Church would become a popular gathering spot for neighbours to gather and picnic beneath the shade of ancient trees.