Woodstock City Map Poster

About Woodstock

The city is named after the town of Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It was renamed in 1816 to Woodstock by Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada Sir Francis Bond Head. The settlement began as a military installation in 1793 and was originally called "Woodstock" for its location near other wooden stockades (including Fort York) at the mouth of the Humber River which were built to protect against American invasions during the War of 1812. However, other accounts state that Lord Selkirk's Scottish title came from his role as an Earl rather than from any connection with Scotland or with wooded areas; he chose this name because he had been inspired by Thomas Gray's poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard".