Heritage Mississauga Heritage Guide
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Lost Villages<br />
The Lost Villages of <strong>Mississauga</strong><br />
In the bustling City of <strong>Mississauga</strong> people<br />
can be excused if they do not notice<br />
small collections of old buildings or the<br />
little cemeteries that seem to dot our city.<br />
Outside of the larger former villages that<br />
make up our city, there is little visible<br />
evidence that <strong>Mississauga</strong> was once<br />
made up of a series of smaller villages,<br />
hamlets and crossroads communities. In<br />
essence, the story of the “Lost Villages”<br />
of <strong>Mississauga</strong> is a story about coming<br />
to terms with constant and relentless<br />
transformation, as much as it is a study of<br />
social and physical change.<br />
Early hamlets and villages directly<br />
serviced the needs of their direct areas.<br />
They often provided cradle-to-grave<br />
amenities, were rooted to settlement<br />
lifestyles and activities, and their growth<br />
or decline was in direct response to the<br />
needs of their immediate locality. The<br />
Old Wagon at Riverwood<br />
<strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Mississauga</strong><br />
hamlets and villages traditionally grew<br />
around major crossroads. These smaller<br />
hamlets and villages were dependent,<br />
in one form or another, on local road<br />
traffic and the services provided by larger<br />
villages. The coming of the railways in the<br />
mid-1800s isolated many of the smaller<br />
communities and exposed these small<br />
hamlets and villages to competition from<br />
larger centres of industry and population.<br />
This coincided with the arrival of the<br />
automobile and the improvement of<br />
roads and communication.<br />
These influences meant that many<br />
of the smaller crossroads communities<br />
lost their importance and most began<br />
to decline. The “Lost Villages” reached<br />
their peak between 1850 and 1900. By<br />
1915, they had declined and gradually<br />
faded into obscurity. These hamlets and<br />
villages included Barberton, Britannia,<br />
34 <strong>Heritage</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> of <strong>Mississauga</strong>