• 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

Norfolk-Colebrook Regionalization Fails

Colebrook votes strongly against   By Wiley Wood Colebrook voters resoundingly opposed the regionalization plan that would have brought the Norfolk and Colebrook primary schools together under one roof and one regional board. The vote count was 369 no, 175 yes. In a simultaneous referendum held in Norfolk, the measure passed by a count of […]

Norfolk Holds Final Public Hearing on Regionalization Plan

Both towns to vote this month   By Janet Gokay About 70 people turned up at Botelle School on August 10 to hear a final presentation of the proposed regionalization plan for the Norfolk and Colebrook elementary schools. A similar presentation occurred the following evening in Colebrook. The two towns will vote separately on the […]

Americorps Puts Boots on the Ground

Team of Volunteers Helps Land Trust Clear a New Trail   By Susannah Wood The weather forecast was for hot and sticky all week, but the six lean and fit members of the Buffalo 5 Team came into town ready to do all the tasks the Norfolk Land Trust put in front of them: drainage […]

Opinion: Two Views of Regionalization

Cost Is Too High for Norfolk and Its Children By Kim Crone There are two arguments supporting the regionalization plan: that it’s good for the town or that it’s good for the children. I am convinced that it’s neither. This plan is not good for Norfolk: (1) The financial burden is higher for Norfolk. Colebrook […]

How Did Dolphin Pond Get Its Name?

A Look into Norfolk’s Past   By Ryan Bachman In December 1803 Norfolk resident Peter Freedom received a crushing verdict from the Litchfield County Court. Because of debts incurred by his recently deceased father, Dolphin, the son was ordered to sell the family farm in southwestern Norfolk. The 40-acre property had only been in the […]

The Norfolk Connecticut Children’s Foundation Funds Educational and Cultural Activities

Enriching the Lives of Norfolk’s Children   By Ruth Melville The Laurel School, at the corner of Route 44 and Laurel Way, was a nonprofit residential school for children with special needs, managed by Ken and Dottie Satherlie. In 1985 the school closed. The leftover funds had to either be returned to the state or […]

Husky Meadows Farm Grows a Cornucopia of Vegetables

By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo The former Curtiss Farm is once again a full working enterprise. The property, just past the three-way intersection of Ashpohtag Road, Lovers Lane and Loon Meadow Drive, is doing its heritage proud. An acre and a half of land is now dedicated to growing vegetables. The rather impressive garden sits at […]

Norfolk—A Thousand Points of Light

Improved communication channels should help town develop   By Kurt Steele Noting that Norfolk has, in the words of a long-ago Presidential candidate, a thousand points of light and yet believing that these need to be coordinated, the Norfolk Economic Development Commission and the Coalition for Sound Growth are focusing on improving communications among the […]

State Board of Ed Approves Regionalization Plan

Towns to hold hearings and referendums   At its regular meeting on July 1, the State Board of Education approved the Norfolk-Colebrook Study Group’s plan for consolidating the towns’ primary schools under one roof and one regional district. Official notification reached the town clerks’ offices in both Norfolk and Colebrook on July 29. In the […]

Tobey Pond—From Glacial Kettle to Local Swimming Hole

By Christopher Sinclair Several thousand years ago a glacier inched its way through the southern Berkshires, and upon its retreat left the patch of land that would later become Norfolk, Connecticut, with a parting gift. Tobey Pond, the locally famous and universally beloved swimming hole, is that gift —nearly as pristine now as it was […]

Rebuilding the American Chestnut Tree

Rescuing a Forest Icon   By Ruth Melville From Connecticut to Mississippi, along the Appalachian Mountains and into the Ohio Valley, the American chestnut tree, able to grow as big as 130 feet tall and 10 feet in diameter, once dominated the forest canopy. Although American chestnuts were almost wiped out by disease by 1950, […]

Property Taxes Drop Slightly

Town budget trimmed back By Wiley Wood Norfolk will spend less in the coming year, and the tax rate will be marginally lower. The budget presented by Michael Sconyers, chairman of the Board of Finance, at a special town meeting on June 10 was almost $200,000 lower than last year’s, a drop of 3 percent. […]