Windsor is a town of 5,300 people, part of the
Le Val-Saint-François Regional County Municipality in the
Estrie region of
Quebec, Canada.
Windsor is perhaps best known for its ultra-modern Domtar fine paper plant.
History
Apart from the
Abenaki Indian camps in this area in the 1600s, Windsor was unpopulated until the early 19th century, when Governor General Prescott granted a tract of land to Joseph Brown to thank him for his service to the Crown. In 1876, when French-Canadian colonist Michel Cloutier acquired land, a rift grew between Francophones and Anglophones, with one side locating in the Township municipality and the other in the village of Windsor Mills. Windsor Mills was elevated to town status in 1899, and took its current name in 1914. The name originates from the village of Berkshire, where Windsor Castle, built ca. 1344 at the request of King Edward III, is located. While most of Windsor's economy is built on the
pulp and paper industry
The pulp and paper industry comprises companies that use wood as raw material and produce pulp, paper, paperboard and other cellulose-based products.
Manufacturing process
The pulp is fed to a paper machine where it is formed as a paper web an ...
and
textile manufacturing, there are also some worthy attractions. This includes the Poudrière de Windsor, which manufactured black explosive powder in Canada around 1864.
During
World War II the
Royal Canadian Air Force built and operated No. 4 Elementary Flying Training School as part of the
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), or Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) often referred to as simply "The Plan", was a massive, joint military aircrew training program created by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zea ...
[
] near Windsor. The school opened on 34 June 1940 and closed on 25 August 1944. The airfield was located southwest of the town near .
[
] A film, "Knights with Wings", about flight training in the BCATP, was filmed at the flying school at Windsor Mills. "An RCAF Pilot's Story 1939-1945: the Memoirs of Ernest E. Allen", recounts some of his experiences learning to fly at Windsor Mills in 1940-41.
On December 29, 1999, the village municipality of Saint-Grégoire-de-Greenlay was merged into the town of Windsor.
Demographics
In the
2021 Census of Population
The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...
conducted by
Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...
, Windsor had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
Mother tongue (2011)
See also
*
List of cities in Quebec
This is the list of municipalities that have the Quebec municipality type of city (''ville'', code=V), an administrative division defined by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Regions and Land Occupancy.
Note that although the terms "city" and ...
References
External links
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Quebec
BCATP
The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP), or Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) often referred to as simply "The Plan", was a massive, joint military aircrew training program created by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Z ...
Military history of Canada during World War II