Bancroft () is a town located on the York River in Hastings County in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was first settled in the 1850s by United Empire Loyalists and Irish immigrants. From the mid-1950s to about 1982, mining was the primary industry. A village until 1999, Bancroft then merged with Dungannon Township to form the Town of Bancroft. The population at the time of the 2016 Census was 3,881; the regional population is 40,000. There are 150,000 visitors to Bancroft, annually.
History
By 1823, the government had purchased nearly two million acres of land from the Chippewa and Mississaga First Nations including a tract on the York River in Hastings County which had been established in 1792. The area was mapped in 1835 by explorer David Thompson.
The first family to build a cabin here, the Clarks in 1853, did so to take advantage of the fur trade. Early settlers included James Cleak and Alfred Barker from England who arrived in 1855, settling on Quarry Lake. They got jobs in administration; Cleak opened a small store and Barker became the first postmaster. Over the years the settlement grew quickly. In fact, there were 89 families by 1868. Lumber companies arrived to remove timber.
Some of the earliest settlers were United Empire Loyalists, but from 1856 to 1861, most were from Ireland, fleeing the problems caused by the Great Famine; many had farming experience and settled in the Township of Dungannon where the land was fertile. Most of the settlers were attracted to the area by the offer of free parcels that had been advertised in Great Britain. Some of the residents also sold furs, obtained through trapping.
Several colonization roads were built to the settlement in the 1850s70s, opening up the lands along the way to further settlement. The Hastings Road ran north. It was joined at Bancroft by the Mississippi Road running northwest from Plevna in Frontenac County and the Monck Road running west from Atherley on Lake Couchiching. This made Bancroft (then still known as York Mills) a significant crossroads.
The settlement had various names over the first years, York Mills, York River and York Branch. When the post office opened in 1861, it was called York River. A grist mill opened in 1865, gold was discovered in 1866 and other minerals would be discovered later. The discovery of sodalite by Frank Dawson Adams in 1892 led to the opening of he Princess Sodalite Mine. The first church and two schools were built in 1870. In 1879, the name of the settlement was changed to Bancroft by Senator Billa Flint, after the maiden name of his wife Elizabeth Ann Clement Bancroft. Flint convinced tradesmen to move to the area, which helped to attract more settlers. A woollen mill began operating in 1884.
The Central Ontario Railway arrived in 1900. In 1903, the Irondale, Bancroft and Ottawa Railway connected to the COR north of town at what is now Y Road, referring to the wye junction joining the two lines. They were beneficial in transporting settlers and goods; the railway would operate until 1982. Bancroft was incorporated as a village in December 1904. The first telephone in the village was at the railway station; it was connected in 1905. Electricity was not available until 1930.
Uranium was discovered in 1949 and construction of Faraday Mine started in 1952. The Red Cross Hospital opened in 1949. Faraday Mine was later renamed Madawaska Mine and operated until 1982. Other minerals were also mined over the years. The closing of the mine caused some economic hardship.
The Ontario Municipal Board approved a request for Bancroft village to become a town on August 9, 1995, with Bancroft Council bylaw 649-95 confirming the new status on 28 August 1995. In 1999, Bancroft merged with Dungannon Township to form the Town of Bancroft.
As of the October 2018 municipal election, the current Mayor is Paul Jenkins.
Demographics
In 1931 the population was 911 people, growing significantly when the uranium mines opened.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Bancroft had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
Prior to amalgamation (1999): Total Population in 1996: 4,080 Bancroft (village): 2,554 Dungannon (township): 1,526 Population in 1991: Bancroft (village): 2,383 Dungannon (township): 1,412
Mother tongue: English as first language: 96.4% French as first language: 0.8% English and French as first language: 0.3% Other as first language: 2.5%
Housing
In 2021, Bancroft was ranked as the best place in Canada to buy real estate by MoneySense.