Bredenbury, on the Yellowhead Highway in eastern Saskatchewan, got its post office in 1890 and was incorporated in 1913. Its name comes from Bredenbury Court, near Bredenbury in Herefordshire, England. That was the manor home of William Henry Barneby, who made three trips to western Canada, in 1881, 1883 and 1888, and wrote books about what he saw.
The town has long been tied to the land and the rails. A CPR main line runs through it, and the local economy rests largely on farming, potash mining near Esterhazy and the railway, along with the businesses that support them. Railway car cleaning and fertilizer plants operate in town. Bredenbury Elementary School closed in 2001, and students now travel to Saltcoats and Yorkton for school. A Mennonite private school, Countryside School, operates locally.
Today Bredenbury is best known for its Christmas lights. It began with a single street calling itself Candy Cane Lane, lined with red and white candy canes, and over the years the whole town joined in. Each December there is a Light Up ceremony, with displays at homes, businesses and empty lots. The town won the national WinterLights competition for communities under 1,000 people in 2001, 2002 and 2005, and has hosted the CPR Holiday Train, including a return visit in 2007.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Bredenbury, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.