Burford is a rural community located in the County of Brant, in Southwestern Ontario. It has approximately 2,000 residents. The local economy is driven by agriculture and agriculture-related services. Local crops include tobacco, corn, ginseng, potatoes, and broccoli.
Burford is located on Highway #53, just west of Brantford and just east of Woodstock. It is approximately 100 km south-west of Toronto.
Burford's annual Flea Market, sponsored by the Burford Area Business Association (BABA), is held on the third Saturday in September and regularly draws crowds upwards of 10,000 people.
The Burford Community is largely held together by the support of its dedicated businesses and service groups. The existence of such facilities as the arena/community centre, agricultural hall, and maintained fairgrounds are largely the result of the dedication of locally-minded volunteers and volunteer groups.
The residents also showed its dedication to community by fighting to keep Burford District High School open amidst pressure from the Grand Erie School Board to close due to its relatively low enrollment of 350 students. Students and staff rallied around the positive effects the school was having within its community -- and the community having within its school -- but after years of fighting and threatened lawsuits, the school was converted into a K-8 elementary school in 2002, effectively closing the other elementary schools in the area -- Coronation school, Maple Avenue school, and Harley-Northfield school. High school students were bussed to nearby Paris District High School. While there is little doubt that the amalgamated elementary school serves its elementary-level students very well, many residents feel their high school students aren't served as well now being bussed to a foreign community as they could be had their local school remained open. Other residents regret that involvement in their childrens' lives is harder now than it was when the schools were situated closer to home.
