The village of Batawa is about three miles north of Trenton along the Trent river. It's a little bedroom community for the Trenton and Belleville areas and about 300 or so folks live there.

Batawa is the only village that I know of where one has to drive through a factory parking lot to get to it. Naturally it would be the old Bata factory that one has to drive through. Unfortunately it has proven to be too expensive to manufacture shoes in Canada, so the factory is no longer in operation. At one time this factory employed almost 2000 people, but by the late 1990's it was no longer feasible for Bata to keep it open.

Thomas Bata came to the area from his native Czechoslovakia in the 1930's to escape the chaos that the Nazis were causing in his home country. The village of Batawa was created around the factory, and the company rented out the war-time houses to its employees. The entire village revolved around the factory.

Today the war-time houses are gone and the community consists of modern single-family homes. It's quite likely one of the tidiest and well planned little communities I have ever driven through. The houses are no longer owned by the company, and it would seem that the current home owners all like to keep their streets neat and tidy. It looks like a great place to raise kids. I actually interrupted a street hockey game as I was driving through. There is nothing more Canadian than the sight of rosy cheeked children, breath vapour coming from their mouths as they move their hockey nets and give you the finger as your car drives by.

You can walk across the hydro-electric dam at Batawa to reach Lock 4 on the Trent Severn Waterway. From experience I can tell you that this is an activity that more people would find enjoyable in the summer than in the winter. Still, the air was quite bracing.

The village of Batawa is actually in Quinte West, so all the services that are available to the residents of quinte West are available to all Batawans.

The village itself has a fire hall, a school, a church and a community centre. It also has the only ski hill in the immediate area. The Batawa Ski Hill isn't a very big hill, but it does have a ski lift and snow making machines. Many local skiiers got their start on this hill. It's great for an afternoon's entertainment.

Batawa is just one of the many communities that make this area such an interesting place to live and work. If you are interested in discovering more about some Quinte real estate opportunities, call Malcolm Johnston at the Trenton Century 21 office at 1 888 792 5499.