History of Bradner, BC

Interurban Train Station & The Bradner Store - Image - The Reach

Bradner is a community within the City of Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, located in a rural northwest region of the city which also includes Mount Lehman.

Bradner occupies a height of land above the Fraser River, immediately across the river from the community of Silverdale, a part of the District of Mission, and Ruskin, on the border between Mission and Maple Ridge. On the floodplain below to the west is the Langley rural neighbourhood of Glen Valley, while on the floodplain to the east, which is called Matsqui Prairie, the nearest Abbotsford neighbourhood is Matsqui Village. Bradner was formerly part of the District of Matsqui, which in 1995 was amalgamated into the City of Abbotsford.

Bradner was named after Thomas Bradner, a settler in the area who homesteaded there in 1895. A Bradner Post Office was designated in 1912 and Bradner was a station on the British Columbia Electric Railway Interurban line from New Westminster to Chilliwack after the expansion in 1910. Bradner is near-totally agricultural in nature, and is noted for its annual Flower Show, as the crops in the area are largely floral, particularly daffodils, a legacy of the many farmers of Dutch extraction who helped found that area's agricultural industry and continue 

In 1928, Mr. Fenwick Fatkin, a recent settler from Vancouver, wanted other local growers to showcase their daffodils and this became the humble beginnings of the famous annual Flower Show. In the beginning, only 10 types of daffodils were displayed. Today, there are over four hundred, some of which are still of a Fatkin variety, but also now feature daffodils from the McMath Family, Matt and Cherry Groves, and Bryan and Agnes Warmerdam.

Another notable celebration in the Bradner community is the annual May Day parade. Every year, a grade six student is selected to become the May Queen. In 2009, the first May King was elected. Hunter was the first May King to be elected in 2009. This raised much controversy in the community, as tradition was not being followed.

Bradner also has a local newspaper. The Bradner Barker was distributed every month during the months school was in session for over 20 years. It often featured work submitted by students at Bradner Elementary. In February 2015 the newspaper went through a transition from print to online. The Bradner Barker was published on February 21st, 2015 by Heather Lemieux. Technical Writer, who was born and raised in Bradner. 

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