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Bradford is the primary country urban area of the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, Ontario, in Canada. It overlooks a farming community, known as The Holland Marsh, located on the Holland River that flows into Lake Simcoe.
The eastern boundary of Bradford is the Holland River, named for Samuel Holland, first Surveyor General of British North America, who passed this way on an exploration from Toronto to Balsam Lake, by way of Lake Simcoe, in 1791.
For several years the Holland River and Lake Simcoe provided the only means of transportation. Holland Landing was the northern terminus of Yonge Street. The military route to Georgian Bay during the War of 1812 crossed Lake Simcoe to Kempenfelt Bay, then by the Nine Mile Portage to Willow Creek and the Nottawasaga River. The Penetanguishene Road, built between 1814 and 1815 from Kempenfelt Bay, provided an alternate route to Georgian Bay. However, early settlers also used this route to get to the frontier of Simcoe County, bypassing the areas of West Gwillimbury and Essa townships.
The first settlers to cross the Holland River, arriving in the fall of 1819, were three Irishmen: James Wallace, Lewis Algeo and Robert Armstrong. This was about the same time as the Auld Kirk Scotch Settlement was established. However, the pioneers of West Gwillimbury were mostly Protestants from Northern Ireland.
The new settlers sent a petition to the province of Upper Canada early in 1824, stating they were separated from the settlements of Yonge Street, by an impassable swamp. On January 24 the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada made a grant for the first main road in West Gwillimbury (4 Geo. 1V., chap 29). The contract for the first corduroy road across the Holland Marsh was completed by Robert Armstrong and his sons in the fall of 1825. Connecting with other contactors sections and the previously constructed road from Kempenfelt Bay, the road became known as Penetanguishene Road. It later became part of Yonge Street, and is now Simcoe County Road 4.
The original road (Bridge Street) did not curve onto Holland Street, but continued straight to what is now Scanlon Ave. near Colborne Street; from there the road continued north, while another road led southwest to the Scottish settlement. It was at this junction that the settlement was first established. William Milloy, formerly of Coulson's Corners, built a small log tavern there in the fall of 1829. Other businessmen included James Drury, merchant; James Campbell, shoemaker and Thomas Driffel, blacksmith. John Peacock, an old soldier from London, England, had settled as a merchant and became the first postmaster in 1835.
Initially, the place was known as Milloy's Tavern and later was called Edmanson's Corners. In 1840, Joel Flesher Robinson named it after his home town in West Yorkshire, England. [1]
Bradford was incorporated as a village in 1857, with a population of about 1,000 people. Only a few years prior to this, the Northern Railway of Canada was built through the town. The train station was constructed by the Grand Trunk Railway and later used by the CNR. Bradford was incorporated as a town in 1960.
The Downtown Core has survived two fires. The first, on May 23, 1871, destroyed upwards of one hundred homes including all of the business part of the village except two hotels being consumed. However, a new downtown area arose where most buildings were made of brick. Today many of the buildings still exist and make up the downtown core. The second fire was in the 1960s with damage only to the northwest corner of the intersection at Highway 11 and Highway 88.
One of its famous historical landmarks that still operates to this day is the Village Inn Hotel. Its architect was E. J. Lennox, one of Toronto's foremost architects who also built Toronto's Old City Hall, the West Wing of the Ontario Legislative Building (known as Queen's Park), and the King Edward Hotel. The Village Inn is situated at the crossroads of Highway 88 and Highway 11, and is the landmark at the four corners of Bradford. Food, lodgings, and hospitality serve as its trademark. This history goes back to the 1900s, to horse and buggy days, when the Village Inn was a favourite meeting place for local residents and travellers en route for other parts of the country. The building survived a couple of fires including the great downtown fire of 1957. In 1980, it was hit by a crane that was trying to negotiate the intersection. It has since been extensively remodeled.
The village of Bradford was established to supply the agricultural interests of its surrounding area, and for a brief period in the mid-19th century, lumbering was a major industry, as trees had to be removed in order to commence farming.
In 1824 entrepreneurs John Thorpe and Mark Scanlon obtained a government grant for the construction of a grist mill on a stream north of the settlement; although the partnership was dissolved about 1832, Scanlon built two sawmills in that vicinity. Water power being the only means of motive power at the time, as many as six mills were located on Scanlon Creek at one time. The family of Thomas Maconchy, one of the early settlers of Gilford, built a sawmill in Bradford at the bridge over the Holland River, in 1840. It was the first mill at that location.
When the Ontario, Simcoe and Huron Railway was constructed, it was said to be through an almost continuous forest for most of the distance from Toronto to Barrie. Sometime after the line opened, Toronto lumber merchant Thompson Smith put up a large sawmill on the river near the Bradford station. First evidence of Smith in the village was 1862 when his partner James Durham cut the Holland River bridge in two, while driving logs to the mill.
Thompson Smith's mill was the second largest in the area, next to the Sage mill at Bell Ewart. Smith added a second mill at Bradford, as well as contracting with Durham's mill in Barrie. Only a decade after the arrival of the railway at Lake Simcoe, pine for the mills was running low. In 1867 H. W. Sage persuaded Thompson Smith to join with him in the formation of the Rama Timber Transport Company, to supply Lake Simcoe mills with timber. With logs coming from as distant as Head Lake, Smith put up a third mill, south of the Holland River bridge in 1869.
Following an example set by American lumberman Henry W. Sage, Thompson Smith established a number of mills at Cheboygan, Michigan.
In 1923, William Henry Day began the drainage system that turned the wetlands of the Holland Marsh into arable land, which now consists of thousands of acres where fresh vegetables are grown.
The 2006 Statistics Canada Census lists the population of Bradford West Gwillimbury (the local census unit) as 24,039. [2] Bradford West Gwillimbury has people from many different backgrounds ranging from Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, Hungary, and Ukraine. The overwhelming majority of Bradford's residents are of European descent.
Bradford's downtown core is situated at the intersection of former Highway 11 (now, County Road 4) and 88 (now, County Road 88). County Road 88 interchanges with Highway 400, a limited-access freeway that connects to Toronto in the south and "cottage country" in the north. This portion of Highway 11 is one of the few connecting routes between Highway 404 to the east and the 400 to the west, creating considerable through traffic. It can be tough to drive through the town on long weekends.
The town's local transit services consist of 2 bus routes, which are operated by the town's local bus service, BWG Transit. [3] GO Transit has bus routes that connect the town to Barrie and Newmarket, and Bradford also has a station on GO Transit's commuter train network. The GO Train service had its first inaugural run through Bradford in 1982. At the time, the commuter train went as far north as Barrie. Over the years the service to Barrie was stopped. This caused Bradford to be a terminus for the commuter trains to Toronto. However, the City of Barrie purchased the rail line north of Bradford with the hope of reintroducing rail service to Barrie. GO Train service resumed as of December 2007 to the city of Barrie. [4]
Bradford has two junior hockey teams that play in the GMHL; the Bradford Bulls and the Bradford Rattlers.
There are 12 schools in the town, including two secondary schools:
Elementary schools include:
There are no university or college campuses in Bradford.
A History of Simcoe County (1909) by Andrew F Hunter 1863–1940. Volume 1 Volume 2
Aurora is a town in central York Region in the Greater Toronto Area, within the Golden Horseshoe of Southern Ontario, Canada. It is located north of the City of Richmond Hill and is partially situated on the Oak Ridges Moraine. In the Canada 2021 Census, the municipal population of Aurora was the 92nd largest in Canada, compared to 95th for the 2016 Census and 97th for the 2006 Census. Aurora is twinned with Leksand, Sweden.
Barrie is a city in Ontario, Canada, about 90 kilometres (56 mi) north of Toronto. The city is within Simcoe County and located along the shores of Kempenfelt Bay, the western arm of Lake Simcoe. Although it is physically in Simcoe County, Barrie is politically independent. The city is part of the extended urban area in southern Ontario known as the Greater Golden Horseshoe. As of the 2021 census, the city's population was 147,829, while the census metropolitan area had a population of 212,667 residents.
Newmarket is a town and regional seat of the Regional Municipality of York in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is part of Greater Toronto in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario. The name stems from the fact that the settlement was a "New Market", in contrast to York as the Old Market.
The Regional Municipality of York, also called York Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, between Lake Simcoe and Toronto. The region was established after the passing of then Bill 102, An Act to Establish The Regional Municipality of York, in 1970. It replaced the former York County in 1971, and is part of the Greater Toronto Area and the inner ring of the Golden Horseshoe. The regional government is headquartered in Newmarket.
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Bradford West Gwillimbury is a town in south-central Ontario, in the County of Simcoe in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area on the Holland River. West Gwillimbury takes its name from the family of Elizabeth Simcoe, née Gwillim.
East Gwillimbury is a town on the East Holland River in the upper-tier municipality the Regional Municipality of York. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area of southern Ontario, in Canada. It was formed by the amalgamation of the Township of East Gwillimbury with all the previously incorporated villages and hamlets within the township. The main centres in East Gwillimbury are the villages of Holland Landing, Queensville, Sharon, and Mount Albert. The Civic Centre are located along Leslie Street in Sharon. The northernmost interchange of Highway 404 is at the North edge of East Gwillimbury, just south of Ravenshoe Road. The hamlets of Holt and Brown Hill are also within town limits.
Innisfil is a town in Ontario, Canada, located on the western shore of Lake Simcoe in Simcoe County, immediately south of Barrie and 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Toronto. It has historically been a rural area, but since it is geographically sandwiched between the high-growth areas of Barrie and the York Region, there has been growing residential development in Innisfil.
Simcoe County is located in the central portion of Southern Ontario, Canada. The county is just north of the Greater Toronto Area, stretching from the shores of Lake Simcoe in the east to Georgian Bay in the west. Simcoe County forms part of the Greater Golden Horseshoe area, a densely populated and industrialized region, centred on the Greater Toronto Area.
Barrie is one of the seven train lines of the GO Transit system in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Union Station in Toronto in a generally northward direction to Barrie, and includes ten stations along its 101.4 kilometres (63.0 mi) route. From 1982 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 2007, it was known as the Bradford line, named after its former terminus at Bradford GO Station until the opening of Barrie South GO Station.
York—Simcoe is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1968 to 1979, from 1988 to 1997 and since 2004.
Holland Landing is a community in the town of East Gwillimbury, located in the northern part of the Regional Municipality of York, in south-central Ontario, Canada. Its major road is Yonge Street and the community has bus service by GO Transit route 68 and York Region Transit route 52. The East Gwillimbury GO train station is in the southeast corner of Holland Landing, providing weekday commuter train service. The East Holland River runs through the community and has several marinas for recreational boats.
The Holland Marsh is a wetland and agricultural area in Ontario, Canada, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Toronto. It lies entirely within the valley of the Holland River, stretching from the northern edge of the Oak Ridges Moraine near Schomberg to the river mouth at Cook's Bay, Lake Simcoe. In its entirety it comprises about 21,000 acres, with two distinct divisions. Historically it has simply been referred to as "the marsh".
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The Auld Kirk Scotch Settlement is a historic settlement located in the former township of West Gwillimbury. It is located on the 6th Line, west of the 10th Sideroad, street number 3380. The church is one of several old Presbyterian churches that merged to form St. John's Presbyterian Church in Bradford West Gwillimbury.
King's Highway 93, commonly referred to as Highway 93, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. Located entirely within Simcoe County, the highway extends 23.9 kilometres (14.9 mi) from an interchange with Highway 400 in Springwater, just south of the community of Hillsdale, to an intersection with Highway 12 at the town limits of Midland. The route follows the historic Penetanguishene Road, an early colonization road which served to connect Lake Simcoe with Georgian Bay, thus providing an overland route from Lake Huron to Lake Ontario via Yonge Street.
King's Highway 88, commonly referred to as Highway 88, was a provincially-maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in what is now the town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, that connected former Highway 27, in the village of Bond Head, with former Highway 11 in the town of Bradford. The short 9.7-kilometre (6.0 mi) route was established in 1938, though the road it followed had existed for over a century at that time.
Vandorf is a hamlet located in the town of Whitchurch–Stouffville, Ontario, in Canada. It is the most westerly settlement within the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville. With a population of approximately 722, Vandorf consists mainly of estate residential homes and farms.
South Simcoe Police Service is a municipal police force in Ontario, Canada, providing service to the municipalities of Innisfil and Bradford West Gwillimbury. It came into existence on January 1, 1997, through the amalgamation of the Innisfil Police Service and Bradford West Gwillimbury Police Service. The neighbouring Barrie Police Service was part of the initial proposal but did not participate in the amalgamation.
King's Highway 90, commonly referred to as Highway 90, was a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The route connected Barrie with the town of Angus and CFB Borden. The highway was designated in 1937. During the early 1960s, the highway was realigned within Barrie in order to have it interchange with Highway 400; originally the route followed Tiffin Street. At the beginning of 1998, the entire highway was transferred to the City of Barrie and Simcoe County; it is now known as Simcoe County Road 90.
