Friends of the Carp River recently spoke with Susan Bradley Noad and her husband Julian Noad about the Bradley Falls on Huntley Creek. Susan and Julian generously shared photos, family history, and stories about the Bradley Falls on the family’s historic farm. The falls played a central role in peoples’ lives from early European settlement in Huntley Township to recent times. Today there is little awareness of the falls and their beauty.
Huntley Creek is the Carp River’s longest tributary. It is also one of the least well-known since the creek runs entirely through private properties. Its headwaters lie in wetlands north of Highway 7 from where it flows for 21 kilometers north and east through forests and farmland to the Carp River near Huntmar Drive.
Huntley Creek flows through what used to be the Bradley Farm on Bradley Side Road near Richardson Side Road in West Carleton. Here the creek cascades over a fault line in limestone rock, creating a small waterfall of grace and beauty. This is its story.
The 1800’s.
We know that the falls lie in the traditional and unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg people, but we have no First Nations history of the falls so our story begins with the European settlers.
After the War of 1812, King George III deeded property in March Corners (March Township) to Captain William Brown Bradley for his service to the Crown. He then traded his March property (200 acres and £40) for 100 acres of land in Huntley owned by William Erskine. He was attracted by the potential of the creek and falls to power a mill. He farmed the land and built a woolen mill. Bradley Farm was born.
Captain William Brown Bradley was born in 1771 in Savannah, Georgia. He died in 1850 and is buried in Beechwood Cemetery. His wife Catherine Clements died in 1864 and is interred at Christ Church Huntley, which still stands on Carp Road at McGee Side Road. They had five children including William Brown Bradley Junior (Lt Col).
On land deeded by John Cavanagh, settlers built Christ Church Huntley, which was completed in 1838 using limestone quarried from the creek at Bradley Farm.
In the 1800’s the Bradley family ran a carding mill and a sawmill powered by the creek and its falls (then called Bradley Creek and Bradley Falls). Captain Bradley’s son, Lt Col William Brown Bradley, took over the farm from his father. His business is described in a 1930’s article in the Ottawa Evening Citizen.
[Lt Col] Bradley … operated a saw mill and a carding mill and made potash. A creek known as Bradley’s Creek ran through the Bradley farm and enabled the [colonel] to operate by water power.
[Lt Col] Bradley was of service to the people of Huntley and March as his saw mill enabled the farmers to get lumber close at hand to erect houses to replace the pioneer log houses.
Potash was a source of fertilizer, which was shipped to Europe where there was high demand. Farmers stored their ash from burning bush land in ash houses and sold the ash to buyers as a source of income.
Today only the foundation of the mill remains near the falls.
The 1900’s.
Susan grew up on the Bradley farm in the 1950’s and 60’s. Her father had a herd of roughly 30 dairy cattle.
They sent the milk to Clark Dairy in Ottawa. The family grew hay to feed the cows. She remembers wagons of hay crossing the bridge over the creek.
Clark Dairy, founded at 634 Bronson Avenue in 1932, and later on Clyde Avenue in Ottawa, was an independently owned dairy until 1974. The Clark brand was retired in 1981 and the milk was branded Neilson. – Retro Canada, Facebook.
The family retained a close connection to Christ Church Huntley. They hosted an annual Sunday School picnic at Bradley Falls. Only women, children, and the pastor attended.
Copyright Bradley family.
Copyright Bradley family.
From the family’s oral history as told by Janet Bradley, Susan’s sister:
The Sunday School picnic was held each year at Bradley’s Falls. Mothers and kids would arrive in the afternoon. The kids would swim in the pool below the Falls and get sprayed by the water.
The falls offered a place to cool off after a long day of haying or on a hot summer day. At night adults would go spearfishing with flashlights in the pool below the falls. Here’s another account by Janet Bradley from the 1960’s.
The pond below the falls was about two feet deep but it seemed just fine to us for swimming. We would head down from the house with our towels and wearing our swimming suits and in those days we always had bathing caps made out of thick rubber and usually some bright colour like pink or green or yellow. The most important piece of swimming attire however was the rubber shoes. These were to prevent slipping on the moss covered rocks but more importantly to keep the blood suckers from our feet. That didn’t mean they didn’t get us though. Hardly a swimming event took place without the need to pull the blood suckers off our arms, our legs, our hands. It’s funny how that didn’t bother or deter us. Now I cannot imagine swimming in those circumstances. But then it was just taken for granted and did not spoil the fun or splashing around in the pond, standing under the spraying shower and searching the pools for stranded minnows and tadpoles.
In 1980-81 Susan’s parents sold the farm to Mitel who used it as a conference centre and a place for electromagnetic interference testing. In 1993 Mitel sold the property to the Royal Ottawa Hospital.
The 2000’s.
In 2017 the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority surveyed Huntley Creek with landowners’ permission and documented what it found in a report. The health of Huntley Creek is generally good. It benefits from flowing through mostly natural areas with few road crossings.
Recently the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre bought 25 acres from the hospital to build a new facility for helping youth overcome substance abuse. Construction of the facility near the falls began in 2022.
The story of Bradley Creek and Bradley Falls illustrates the importance of our rivers and creeks in our lives past and present. Water has the power to drive our machines. It provides respite from heat and a place for a community to gather. It also has the power to help with healing. The young people at the Treatment Centre will add their own stories to two centuries of history at Bradley Falls.
Learn More
For information about the ecology of Huntley Creek, read MVCA’s survey of the creek: Huntley Creek 2017 Catchment Report (PDF).
References
History of the Ottawa Valley. J. L. Gourlay. Excerpts from 1896 provided by Susan Noad.
A History of the Bradley Family, 1700 – 2000. Private publication of the Bradley family. Copy provided by Susan Noad.
Ottawa Evening Citizen, 1930’s article on Lt Col William Brown Bradley, son of Captain William Brown Bradley. From the Bradley family collection. (Typed copy provided by Susan Noad.)
Retro Canada. Facebook page.
Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre Proposed for West Carleton. Stittsville Central. 26 February 2015.
The Anglican Parish of Huntley – Christ Church.
Photos. All photos are from the Bradley family collection and have been shared with their permission. All rights reserved.