Richmond early post-colonial history was all about farming.
There were farms from east to west in Richmond. As recounted in Coun. Bill McNulty’s recent book, Sea Island was the first fully cultivated area in Richmond.
Today many of the properties still remain in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).
The Friends of the Richmond Archives (FOTRA) recently posted a photo to their Facebook page of a threshing crew on Jack (John) Cook’s farm.
They are posing in front of the threshing machine in the photo from about 1920.
Cook settled in Richmond in 1898 and established his farm on Blundell Road.
He was the president of the Richmond Agricultural Society and helped acquire Brighouse Neighbourhood Park for the city.
According to FOTRA, he volunteered to mow the grass on the park’s baseball field using a horse-drawn mower.
Cook was a Richmond city councillor for 25 years and he was named Good Citizen in 1955.
According to the City of Richmond, there are currently 184 active farms in the city with about 7,200 acres under production. This is only, however, 34 per cent of the land currently in the ALR.
The rest of the ALR land is either vacant or used for other purposes, such as golf courses or institutional uses.
📣 Got an opinion on this story or any others in Richmond? Send us a letter or email your thoughts or story tips to [email protected].
📲 To stay updated on Richmond news, sign up for our daily headline newsletter.
💬 Words missing in article? Your adblocker might be preventing hyperlinked text from appearing.
