My Community:
Historical Glanbrook
When all the former municipalities gathered together into the amalgamated City of Hamilton in 2001, it marked the end of the (relatively) short-lived community named Glanbrook.
Not that the area comprising Glanbrook was not as rich historically as all the other former municipalities, but that the name, Glanbrook only appeared for the first time in 1974.
At that time, with the creation of the Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth, the former townships of Binbrook and Glanford were merged. The new name selected was a combination of parts of the former names, notably Glan and Brook, to capture that union.
The area that became Binbrook Township was surveyed and named in 1791. It was named after the town of Beverly in Easy Yorkshire, England; a community located about 12 kilometres north of the city of Kingston upon Hull.
Binbrook Township was originally part of Lincoln Township, then became part of Wentworth County when that body was formed in 1816.
Within the Township of Binbrook, there was a community known as Hall’s Corners, named after a gentleman named Squire Hall, in whose general store the area’s post office was located in 1848. That community later came to be known as Binbrook.
The township of Glanford came into existence one year after the Township of Binbrook. As with Binbrook, Glanford Township was originally part of Lincoln Township.
In 1854, with the creation of Wentworth County, Glanford Township was included in that municipal body.
The name, Glanford, was selected to echo the name of a parish, Glanford Briggs, located in Lincolnshire, England, 40 kilometres north of the capital city of London.
With a distinctively rural character throughout their existence as separate governmental bodies, the townships of Binbrook and Glanford had annual agricultural fairs to display the products of the many prosperous farms located throughout each township. The main road heading south out of Hamilton, the Hamilton and Port Dover Road was a major thoroughfare.
The completion of the long-delayed Hamilton and North-western Railway in 1872 gave the residents in Glanford and Binbrook Townships a much better connection for passenger and freight service, for themselves and their farm products.
A major impact of the character of the area occurred in October 1940 when an airport was built near the village of Mount Hope for use as a wartime air force training centre. After World War Two, the Hamilton Aero Club took over a couple of the hangars. Gradually, from that time until the early 1960’s, the Mount Hope Airport gradually was transformed from a military to a public facility. On April 5, 1998, a special ceremony was held at the airport to celebrate the renaming of the airport in honour of John C. Munroe who had been instrumental in the establishment of the facility into a major international airport.
The municipal township of Glanbrook, created with the establishment of the Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth in 1974 would ultimately became a valued component of the amalgamated city of Hamilton upon its ceremonial beginning date, January 1, 2001.
