BANCROFT MEMORIAL. 

The 23-acre Bancroft Memorial, bequeathed by Mildred Ryan Bancroft in 1992, is one of the Land Trust’s largest properties. Mrs. Bancroft, a long-time active member of the Farmington community, took great pleasure in the beauty of the land surrounding her house on Prattling Pond Road. In memory of Mrs. Bancroft, friends and neighbors contributed to a permanent endowment fund, the interest from which is used for maintenance of the property.

Situated on the eastern side of Talcott Mountain, this parcel includes a
wooded hillside which slopes gently down to a shrub swamp and meadow. The primarily deciduous semi-mature woodland, with some stands of pine and hemlock, is noted for its high level of plant diversity.

The shrub swamp, an ecosystem that is increasingly hard to find in this
region, provides a wildlife habitat value in the form of food production and nesting cover for songbirds, as well as over- wintering cover for amphibians and turtles.  This swamp is a semi-permanently flooded wetland, with a pronounced hummock and hollow topography, in which the hummocks support shrubs and sedges, and the hollows are almost always full of standing water.

In the small meadow adjacent to Prattling Pond Road stands a dramatic black oak (14th largest in the State). Underneath the tree is a memorial bench dedicated to Richard Noyes, executive director of the Farmington Land Trust for 14 years, who was a tireless and powerful advocate for land preservation in our town.

In 2002, the Land Trust partnered with Connecticut Forest and Park
Association to establish a short section of the Metacomet Trail onto the
Bancroft Parcel. Visitors are welcome to walk the trail, starting from the
meadow to the east of Prattling Pond Road, heading towards the big oak and on up the hillside