History buff Kirsten Mairi, also known as Kiki, who lives in Toronto, Canada, told her 10.4k TikTok followers: “I bet you didn’t know you could visit Canada in England.”
Kiki travelled to England, where she managed to discover “a hidden piece of Toronto’s history” – and it turns out many people had no idea. Kiki explained that apparently Wolford Chapel, which is located in Devon, South West England, is “actually Canadian territory”.
She proved this by looking the address up on Google Maps, which shows it’s actually located in Ontario. In the screenshot, viewers could see the official address was: ON, Canada, Honiton, EX14 4SQ.
Explaining why, Kiki went on: “It is the resting place of John Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada [modern day Ontario]. The property has been maintained by the Ontario Heritage Trust since 1966. John, his wife Elizabeth, and two of their children arrived in Canada in the late 1700s. They established a new capital here, which will become the Toronto we know today.
“After their relatively short stint in Upper Canada, the Simcoe family returned to England and lived at Wolford Lodge on Wolford Estate. On land, I need to add, he only had because of his wife Elizabeth’s inheritance.”
John Simcoe, born in Cotterstock, England in 1752 and raised in Exeter, Devon, served in the British army during the American Revolutionary War. He was tasked with transforming Upper Canada into an exemplary British colony.
The chapel, located in Devon, was commissioned by Lord Simcoe in 1802 and was part of his estate. After his death in 1806, the estate remained within his family for another 100 years.
However, in 1923, it was bought by Sir Geoffrey Harmsworth, who wished to gift the chapel to Canada as a nod to its connections with the country. Initially, he contemplated physically moving the chapel across the Atlantic Ocean.
Instead, he chose to donate the chapel and its surrounding land to the people of Ontario. As stated on the Ontario Heritage Trust website: “In 1966, the John Graves Simcoe Memorial Foundation acquired the property on behalf of the people of Ontario from the owner of the estate, Sir Geoffrey Harmsworth, a British publisher. The Ontario Heritage Trust accepted title to the chapel in 1982 from the John Graves Simcoe Foundation, which also provided funds for its long-term care.”
And it turns out many people had no idea they could visit a bit of Canada in the UK. “Why don’t we all know this?” asked one person. “I live 30 minutes away and didn’t know this existed,” said another. Kiki replied: “You’re not alone. No one knew it existed when I went.” On a similar note, someone else replied: “How is this literally 10 mins from where I grew up and I’ve never heard of it.”
The chapel is open to visitors throughout the year, and as it’s still legally on UK land, no embassy is required for it being there and you don’t need a passport to enter.
