Langford, British Columbia

Langford is a city on southern Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Langford is one of the 13 component municipalities of Greater Victoria and is within the Capital Regional District. Langford was incorporated in 1992 and has a population of over 40,000 people. Its municipal neighbours are Colwood to the southeast, Highlands to the north, Metchosin to the southwest, and View Royal to the northeast.

The City of Langford was incorporated on December 8, 1992.[2] Langford’s history of European settlement dates back to 1851, when Captain Edward Langford[3] established one of the four Hudson’s Bay Company farms in the Victoria area. In the early 1860s, the region of Langford experienced a short-lived gold rush in what is now Goldstream Provincial Park.[4][5] The area was once a favourite recreation destination for thousands of Victorians in the late 1800s: day-trippers travelled via railway to the popular country resort Goldstream House Hotel;[6] hunters built their lodges on the shores of the lakes near the mountains; and a summer colony of the well-to-do city folk relaxed and socialized at Langford Lake.[7]

The region has become the fastest-growing little city on Vancouver Island, with big retail stores and new residential developments, and the expanding suburban town of Langford became a city in 2003. The motto of Langford is “Golden in setting, determined in Spirit,” containing a reference to the natural beauty of the City of Langford, specifically Goldstream Provincial Park, and a comment on the community’s drive to enhance Langford’s special character and future.[8]

Langford Lake was named for Captain Edward E. Langford who arrived with his family in 1851 as the first English family to emigrate to the Colony of Vancouver Island. He was the manager of the Esquimalt farm owned by the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, a subsidiary of the Hudson’s Bay Company. He returned to England in 1861.[9]:149