Live in Sherwood
One of the five Symons Valley communities: large households, the highest immigrant share on this site's northwest list, and Beacon Hill's retail at its shoulder.
Sherwood is one of the five Symons Valley communities, its association formed in 2008 and its build-out running from the 2000s through the 2010s. The 2021 census counted 6,520 residents in 2,025 private households, an average of 3.2 people per household against 2.6 citywide, with 58 per cent of residents immigrants and a median household income of $108,000 in 2020. Beacon Hill's Costco-anchored district sits at its southwest shoulder, and Blessed Marie-Rose School, the community's first, opened on 4 September 2018.
The quiet quarter of Symons Valley
Bounded by Sarcee Trail to the west, Nolan Hill to the north, Kincora to the east and the Hamptons to the south. The community association gives Symons Valley Parkway, Stoney Trail, Shaganappi Trail and Sarcee Trail as the four edges. Ward 2.
Sherwood is Symons Valley's quiet quarter. Its community association was registered in 2008 and the build-out came in three roughly equal waves: 34% of the occupied dwellings were built between 2001 and 2010, 33% between 2011 and 2015 and 30% since 2016. The 2012 civic census caught the middle of that at 2,523 residents; the 2021 federal census counted 6,520 in 2,025 private households.
Who lives here. This is one of the largest-household communities on this site: an average of 3.2 people against 2.6 citywide, with 20% of households at five or more and 23% of residents under 15. 58% of residents are immigrants, against 33% across Calgary, and 60% speak English most often at home against 75% citywide. Median household income was $108,000 in 2020, though 31% of households spend 30% or more of income on shelter against 23% citywide.
It matured on the neighbourly model. The association runs a community garden, an annual Multicultural Festival, soccer and baseball fields, and charges $25 a year for membership. It has no hall and no rental facility of its own. The community's first school, Catholic Blessed Marie-Rose, broke ground on 6 May 2016 and opened on 4 September 2018.
Beacon Hill's Costco district at the shoulder makes this one of the better-provisioned addresses in the new north. The commute is the price: 81% of employed residents drive and 8% take transit, and only 16% reach work in under fifteen minutes against 21% citywide.
- No page this guide could open names a Calgary Board of Education school inside Sherwood. Verify the designation in writing
- 97% of the occupied stock was built since 2001, so first roofs, furnaces and hot water tanks are the coming expense
- Sarcee and Stoney carry the boundary traffic
- No CTrain. 8% of employed residents take transit and only 16% reach work in under fifteen minutes, against 21% citywide
How Sherwood got here
- 2008The Sherwood Community Association is registered on 8 September, run by volunteers. It has no hall or rental facility, but runs soccer and baseball fields, an annual Multicultural Festival and a community garden.
- 2001 to 201034 per cent of the community's occupied dwellings are built in this decade, the first of three roughly equal waves.
- 2011 to 2015Another 33 per cent goes up.
- 2016Construction of Blessed Marie-Rose School begins on 6 May, named for the late Marie Rose Durocher.
- 2018Blessed Marie-Rose School opens on 4 September under the Calgary Catholic School District: the community's first school.
- 2021The federal census counts 6,520 residents in 2,025 private households, with a median household income of $108,000 in 2020 and 58 per cent of residents immigrants against 33 per cent across Calgary.
The association's green network
The community's greens and garden thread the crescents, with the association's soccer and baseball fields alongside them, and the wider Symons Valley pathway system links toward Kincora and Sage Hill.
What the map does not show: the garden and festival are the tells. This is the Symons Valley community that organizes itself. Join in.
Elsewhere in Calgary, not Sherwood
10 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–10 of 10 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are estimated from the centre of the community to each destination using Calgary's road grid, and are rounded to honest ranges rather than presented as precise figures. Costco at the shoulder flatters the errand numbers; the commute numbers stay honest.
Every gym within reach
Beacon Hill close, the giants beyond. Confirm hours before you count on anything.
- Beacon Hill's commercial clubs are the near option
- Vivo, at 11950 Country Village Link NE, is the alternative: two pools, ice, climbing and a library branch
- The green network and the association's soccer and baseball fields are the free option
- The association runs soccer, zumba and child care, but has no facility of its own
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Shane Homes YMCA at Rocky Ridge open | YMCA Calgary branch at 11300 Rocky Ridge Road NW, one of seven health and fitness branches, sharing its address with the Rocky Ridge Library. YMCA Calgary publishes addresses and hours, not a facility list. | 10–15 min |
| Vivo for Healthier Generations open | The north-central anchor at 11950 Country Village Link NE: two pools, a gym and studios, ice arenas, gymnasiums, sport courts, climbing walls and a library branch. | 9–14 min |
| Beacon Hill clubs open | Commercial gyms in the district at the shoulder. | 2–5 min |
| Community greens and garden open | Free option: the association's green network, community garden and its soccer and baseball fields. | 1–3 min |
Beacon Hill for weekdays, the Y for weekends: the working pattern here.
One school in, public designations out
Blessed Marie-Rose, open since 4 September 2018 and named for the late Marie Rose Durocher, is the only school any publisher this guide opened places inside Sherwood. Nothing names a public school here.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Blessed Marie-Rose School | Calgary Catholic | The community's first school, opened 4 September 2018 under the Calgary Catholic School District and named for the late Marie Rose Durocher. The district's own site refuses automated clients, so its grade range could not be confirmed. |
| Public designations | Calgary Board of Education | No page this guide could open names a Calgary Board of Education school inside Sherwood. The CBE assigns a designated school from the home address and the chosen programme through a lookup that cannot be read from a static page. Confirm for a specific address. |
Alberta funds Catholic education the same way it funds public education, so there is no tuition for a resident student at either board. The CBE assigns a designated school from the home address through a lookup that cannot be read from a static page, and the Calgary Catholic School District's site refuses automated clients, so Blessed Marie-Rose's grade range is unconfirmed here. Verify both in writing.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- The multicultural festival is the community's annual signature
- Priority snow routes keep the main roads clear
- Indoor recreation carries the season
- Long dark evenings, but rarely for weeks at a stretch
- Ski traffic west on the Trans-Canada peaks on Friday and Sunday
- Coldest snaps usually break with a chinook
- Noticeably longer light by month end
- Indoor pools at their busiest
- Melt and refreeze on the side streets: ice cleats weather
- Pathways reopen as the snow goes
- First patio afternoons on the warm chinook days
- Street sweeping begins late in the month
- Last hard frosts: planting waits for the May long weekend
- Pathway and park season opens properly
- Garden centres open across the quadrant
- Migratory birds return to the parks
- Long evenings: sunset past 9pm by month end
- Lilacs and crabapples through the older streets
- Field sport seasons start on the community greens
- First genuinely warm stretches
- Peak daylight at the solstice: over 16 hours
- School year ends and the parks fill
- Evening thunderstorms begin building over the foothills
- Farmers' markets open for the season
- Hail season on the open north
- Hottest month, with cool nights at this elevation
- Evening thunderstorms roll off the foothills
- Canada Day events in the parks
- Folk Festival on Prince's Island mid-month
- Kananaskis and Banff at their best, straight west
- Quietest weeks before school returns
- Smoke from western wildfires is possible
- School year restarts and morning traffic thickens
- First frost typically arrives late in the month
- Poplar and aspen colour begins
- Evenings shorten fast
- Peak autumn colour through the older tree-lined streets
- First snow is normal, and normally melts
- Snow tires go on across the quadrant
- Nose Hill's grasses turn gold
- Ski season opens west on the Trans-Canada
- Dark by 5pm
- Freeze sets in for good
- Holiday retail season begins
- Chinook arches over the western skyline on clear days
- Holiday lights through the community streets
- Outdoor rinks open when the freeze holds
- Quiet, short days between the holidays
3 more photographs of the community and its surroundings
All freely licensed, via Wikimedia Commons. Filter by category.
Showing 1–3 of 3 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near Sherwood, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared Calgary library.