• Norfolk Crowds Return to New Farmers Market

    By Andra Moss The crowd was large, loud and loving it at July’s Northwest Farm to Fork farmers market, held under the pavilion at Norbrook Farm Brewery. “We were very pleased with the turnout, with approximately 230 customers coming through and 16 food and farm vendors,” says Lisa Auclair, a co-founder, with Devin Grosso and […]

  • Friday Night on the Green Celebrates America’s 250th

    July 3 was a picture-perfect night for the community-wide event cel-ebrating America’s Independence. Following a quick parade, picnickers enjoyed burgers and ice cream while judges dug into the entries in the pie baking contest. First Selectman Hen-ry Tirrell moved seamlessly from his welcome speech to the dunk tank, and a few folks, like Pete Sanders […]

  • NORFOLK REMEMBERS Laurene Mary Wallace

    Laurene Mary Wallace, 77, of Colebrook passed peacefully at home surrounded by her family on Friday, July 10, 2026. Laurene was born on April 28, 1949, in Bridgeport, the last of four children born to the late Lawrence and Irene (Misencik) Firmender of Stratford. A retired registered nurse, Laurene’s career in nursing and cardiac rehabilitation […]

  • Norfolk Remembers Sally Sterling Ellis Quale

    Sally Sterling Ellis Quale, of Norfolk and St. Petersburg, Fla., formerly of Bronxville, N.Y., died unexpectedly of heart failure on July 7 at the age of 87. Sally will be remembered for her deep commitment to her family and communities and for her warmth, kindness, intelligence, creativity … and, of course, for her beautiful smile […]

  • Norfolk Then…

    This charming house, still standing on the west side of Litchfield Rd., was built in 1905 for Richmond Paine, the newly appointed conductor of the Litchfield County Choral Union (LCCU). Carl and Ellen Battell Stoeckel engaged the architect Ehrick Rossiter to design the house for Paine as well as the Music Shed for performances by […]

  • Norfolk’s Newest Neighborhood Puts Down Roots

    Haystack Woods lauded as a “model for the state” By Joe Kelly Norfolk’s newest neighborhood, the Haystack Woods affordable housing development, has officially come to life. A year ago, the 39-acre location—a former gravel pit off Old Colony Road—was little more than a muddy building site. Now construction of the 10, two- and three-bedroom homes […]

  • Winsted Church Auctions Tiffany Window for $1.25 Million

    Sale highlights women’s role in Tiffany designs By Joe Kelly When medieval architects found ways to build taller cathedrals, the techniques they developed also made possible the enormous stained-glass windows that we so enjoy today, such as at Chartres and Sainte-Chapelle in France and Canterbury Cathedral in England. American-made stained glass is more recent, dating […]

  • A Revolutionary Year

    1776 Norfolk explored in summer exhibition By Andra Moss Communities across the country are looking back with wonder at 1776, the year that 13 British colonies initiated a revolution that, against astonishing odds, led to the birth of an independent republic. In Norfolk, two curators have combed the Norfolk Historical Society’s (NHS) collection for colonial-era […]

  • SUMMER MUSIC: Familiar Quartets, New Composers at Yale Chamber Festival

    By Patricia Platt The Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, running from July 3 until Aug. 22, will present an exciting season of classical, innovative and international music. This summer, the Brentano Quartet, Shanghai Quartet, Ying Quartet and the Horszowski Trio are among those who will perform during weekend concerts and serve as artist-in-residence mentors to the […]

  • Botelle Students Move Up

    By Avice Meehan Four sixth graders bid farewell to Botelle Elementary School at a laughter-filled, but occasionally serious, ceremony on June 16 that was attended by family, friends and town officials. First Selectmen Henry Tirrell, a Botelle graduate whose mother and aunt taught at the school for many years, reminded the students that they would […]

  • Norfolk Rail-Trail Project Pedals Forward

    By Jude Mead After more than a decade of planning, permiting and redesign work, Norfolk’s long-await-ed Rails-to-Trails initiative has reached a major milestone, bringing the community closer to the creation of a new multi-use recreational trail along a historic railroad corridor. The project is the North Brook Trail, a planned three-quarter-mile ADA-accessi-ble pathway that will […]

  • LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: Budgets, Beetles, Nips and More

    By Avice Meehan State Rep. Maria Horn came prepared to share details about the Connecticut budget (she is co-chair of the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee) and the progress that has been made toward paying down the state’s unfunded pension liability, increasing the rainy day fund (now up to $18 billion) and allocating more state funds […]

Articles

City Meadow Park: Mire to Marsh

Connecting the village center with improved access and amenities By David BeersPhoto by Christopher Little The town’s storm water runoff takes a circuitous route through the soils and vegetation of City Meadow Park, which allows the water to be filtered of sediment and contaminants. In a very similar meandering fashion, the process of creating the […]

Pittsfield Rye, Baking Quality Bread for 90 Years

Faces at the Farmers Market By Ruth MelvillePhoto by Bruce Frisch Every Saturday morning during the outdoor market season, the Pittsfield Rye and Specialty Breads Company pulls its van up in front of Town Hall and starts to unload a cornucopia of freshly baked bread. There is a bread for every bread lover’s taste: seeded, […]

A Provençal Summer Evening With Friends

Notes From a French Kitchen By Marie-Christine Perry The farmers market beckons, full of this summer’s bounty, and conjures Provence, France, where every small village market on the hills offers an abundance of the local favorites – shiny purple eggplants, large juicy tomatoes, pale green and yellow zucchini, and sweet peppers in a variety of shapes […]

Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation

The Norfolk Food Pantry Is Running Low on Supplies According to Lynn Deasy, one of the volunteers who manages the Norfolk Food Pantry, more than 40 million Americans live in households that don’t have the resources to buy good, nutritious food. Even in Norfolk, 20 to 30 percent of the children at Botelle Elementary School […]

Revamp of Norfolk Website Offers Visuals of Town

Subscribers can get weekly email update of town events By Wiley Wood Last month, visitors to the town website saw a video showing a little boy, Calvin, climbing the stairs to the viewing platform on Haystack Mountain with his parents’ encouragement. But when Calvin gets to the top of the stairs, he finds himself staring […]

Robocalls: Aiming to End Them

Deluge of calls driving people crazy By Jude Mead I’m losing the battle! Yesterday I received 14 robocalls on my landline and five on my cellphone. For years I never answered a number or name I did not know. Today, however, I have to use the same caution when I see a name or number […]

Norfstroms Celebrates One Month of Recycling Success

And a few lessons earned By Kelly Kandra Hughes “Welcome to Norfstroms!” Friendly volunteers greet residents as they approach the latest addition at the transfer station—an 8’ x 20’ shed that houses everything and anything from dinnerware and glasses to shovels and rakes. The shed, named Norfstroms by a town contest, is a collaborative, experimental […]

Art, Yearning and Bad Behavior in 1930s Mexico

Historical fiction from a Norfolk novelist By Wiley Wood Courtney Maum has a new book coming out: a novel, “Costalegre,” set in Mexico during the mid-1930s, told in the voice of a 15-year-old girl. In the foreground are the girl’s wealthy, spoiled American mother and the boatload of ego-driven artists she has brought with her—rescued—from […]

The Litchfield County Choral Union Celebrates 120 Years

Honoring the Stoeckel legacy By Colleen Gundlach The year was 1899 when Carl and Ellen Battell Stoeckel decided to honor her father, Robbins Battell, by starting a choral festival in Norfolk. The Stoeckels had been opening their home, Whitehouse, for musical gatherings for several years, so it was a natural offshoot for them to expand […]

WIN, WIN for Norfolk

 Town festival celebrates its fourth year By Doug McDevittPhoto by Bruce Frisch Most great ideas come when we least expect them. In a dream or a daydream, during a conversation with a better half when we should be listening, or while running simple errands, it sometimes can’t be helped, they just pop in there. Well, […]

Chamber Music Festival Shifts Into a Higher Register

By James Nelson With the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival now underway, there’s been a surge of activity on the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate. The students are here and making great use of Infinity Bistro, the Country Store, the Pub and the Hub. Audiences are coming for our series of concerts, lectures and master classes, and […]

Norfolk Fire Department Gets Updated Rescue Equipment

Generous donations enable purchase By Jon BarbagalloPhoto courtesy of Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department The Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department has received and already put into service our newest extrication tools, thanks to the Auxiliary for Community Health in Winsted and the largest response to date to our annual appeal. After an extensive research, the NVFD chose to purchase battery-operated spreaders and cutters […]