Batawa is a small community in South-Eastern Ontario, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. This planned hamlet was founded by Thomas J. Bata

Thomas J. Bata

Tomáš Jan Baťa, , also known as Tomas Bata Jr. and Tomáš Baťa ml. and "Shoemaker to the World", ran the Bata Shoe Company from the 1940s until the '80s. His last name pronounce baht-ya....

 in the 1930s near the city of Trenton

Trenton, Ontario

Trenton is a community in Southern Ontario in the municipality of Quinte West, Ontario, Canada. Located on the Bay of Quinte, it is the main population centre in Quinte West....

 and is today part of the city of Quinte West

Quinte West, Ontario

Quinte West is a city, formerly part of Hastings County, but now a Separated municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, . It is located on the western end of the Bay of Quinte on Lake Ontario...

. It is the site of the Bata Shoe Company

Bata Shoes

Bata Shoes is a large, family owned shoe company based in Bermuda but currently headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, operating 3 business units worldwide – Bata Metro Markets, Bata Emerging Markets and Bata Branded Business. It has a retail presence in over 50 countries and production...

's old shoe factory, which began operation in 1940.

History

Tomas Bata was a believer in the 'commune' concept for manufacturing. The Bata company owned the town, providing accommodations at a reasonable rate to its workers. The company controlled virtually all aspects of the village. Many of the residents were immigrants from Bata's homeland, Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

.

Low-cost foreign imports of shoes made Canadian production too costly. The factory closed down, yet the town lives on as a beautiful community on the nearby banks of the Trent River.

Further reading

There are several books about the Bata's including: Uprooted and Transplanted, the story of a family that immigrated to Canada and worked at the Batawa facility.