Farnham, Quebec
Encyclopedia
Farnham is a town located in the province of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, Canada. It is part of the Brome-Missisquoi
Brome-Missisquoi Regional County Municipality, Quebec
- External links :* * *...

 regional county municipality
Regional county municipality
The term regional county municipality or RCM is used in Quebec to designate one of 86 county-like political and geographic units. In most cases, they are also census divisions. Regional County Municipalities are a supralocal type of "Regional Municipality" and are still commonly referred to as...

, in the administrative region of Montérégie
Montérégie
Montérégie is an administrative region in southwest Québec. It includes the cities of Boucherville, Brossard, Granby, Longueuil, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Saint-Hyacinthe, Sorel-Tracy, and Vaudreuil-Dorion....

. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census
Canada 2006 Census
The Canada 2006 Census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day was May 16, 2006. The next census following will be the 2011 Census. Canada's total population enumerated by the 2006 census was 31,612,897...

 was 7,809, making it the second most populated community in the RCM.

History

The city of Farnham takes its name from the township (Canada)
Township (Canada)
The term township generally means the district or area associated with a town. However in some systems no town needs to be involved. The specific use of the term to describe political subdivisions has varied by country, usually to describe a local rural or semi-rural government within the county...

 of Farnham. The latter is one of the few townships being proclaimed before 1800, and was named as such in remembrance of Farnham
Farnham
Farnham is a town in Surrey, England, within the Borough of Waverley. The town is situated some 42 miles southwest of London in the extreme west of Surrey, adjacent to the border with Hampshire...

, UK. The first "Farnhamiens", mostly Loyalists
Loyalist (American Revolution)
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...

 from the United States, first came there in 1800.

On December 28, 1876, Farnham got the status of "town". On March 8, 2000, the town of Farnham and the municipality of Rainville merged together to form the new "City of Farnham". The total population is now numbered at 8,000 inhabitants.

Farnham is also the site of an important military training camp, used primarily by the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School
Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School
The Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School is located at the Général-Jean-Victor-Allard Building in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec.CFLRS is a leadership training school for both primary reservist and regular forces....

 and local militia.

Geography

Built on the shores of the Yamaska River
Yamaska River
The Yamaska River is a river in southern Quebec, Canada.Its source is the Sutton Mountains region of the Eastern Townships of Quebec. It flows north-west to Farnham and from there north to the Saint Lawrence River at Sorel-Tracy. Altogether it is long with a drainage basin of 4784 square...

, at the border of the Saint-Lawrence lowlands, the city of Farnham is located in the center of important cities such as Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (West) and Granby
Granby, Quebec
Granby is a city in southwestern Quebec, located east of Montreal. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 47,637. Granby is the seat of La Haute-Yamaska Regional County Municipality. It is the fifth most populated city in Montérégie after Longueuil, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Brossard and...

 (North-East).

Population

Population trend
Census Population Change (%)
2006 7,809 0.8%
2001 7,747 1.9%
Merger 7,899 (+) 23.5%
1996 6,044 1.7%
1991 6,146 N/A


(+) Amalgamation of the City of Farnham and the Municipality of Rainville on March 8, 2000.

Language

Mother tongue language (2006)
Language Population Pct (%)
French only 7,150 93.53%
English only 280 3.66%
Both English and French 90 1.18%
Other languages 125 1.63%

Attractions

  • Petite Église - once an old church, the newly renovated building is now a fully functional recording studio, owned and operated by Montreal
    Montreal
    Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

    -based indie rock
    Indie rock
    Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

     band Arcade Fire. Other notable bands to have recorded at Petite Église include Wolf Parade
    Wolf Parade
    Wolf Parade is an indie rock band formed in 2003 from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The band is currently on an indefinite hiatus as of May 31, 2011.-History:...

     and Hot Springs
    Hot Springs (band)
    Hot Springs were an indie-rock band formed in 2004 based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They were unique in the Montreal music scene, in that they had an equal fan-base within both the francophone and anglophone communities.-History:...

    .

Activities

Located in Farnham is Canada's leading parachuting school, Nouvel Air. Farnham has an arena named in honor of Madeleine Auclair. Since the 1990s Farnham has had a skate board park, which hosts an annual festival every August named "Skatefest de Farnham". Southeast of Farnham is the golf course "Club de Golf de Farnham".

Farnham is on the route of both the Montérégiade Farnham/Granby and Route verte bicycle paths.

Transportation

Farnham is home to Farnham railway station
Farnham, Quebec railway station
Farnham Canadian Pacific Railway station is a disused railway station located in Farnham, Quebec, Canada. Its address is 191 Victoria Road. The station opened in 1950. It was listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places in 1994 as a heritage railway station.-External links:*...

, a disused station belonging to the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

.

Notable people

  • H. H. Bennett
    H. H. Bennett
    Henry Hamilton Bennett was a photographer famous for his pictures of the Dells of the Wisconsin River and surrounding region taken between 1865 and 1908. The popularity of his photographs helped turn the city of Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin into a major tourist destination.-Early life:H. H...

    , photographer, was born in Farham.
  • Ludger Lemieux
    Ludger Lemieux
    Ludger Lemieux was a Quebec architect who designed a number of notable Art deco structures in Montreal's Saint-Henri district. While he often worked in partnership with Joseph-Honoré MacDuff, his most best-known structure, the Atwater Market, was designed not with MacDuff but with Paul Lemieux,...

    , architect
  • Luc Léveillé, mayor
  • David Jetté, multi-instrumentalist famous for playing The Unforgiven
    The Unforgiven (song)
    "The Unforgiven" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released as the second single from their eponymous fifth album Metallica...

     non-stop for 6 hours.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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