Derby is a locality on the lower

Fraser River The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...

in northwestern Langley. The site of the original

Fort Langley Fort Langley is a village community in Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada. It has a population of approximately 3,400 people. It is the home of Fort Langley National Historic Site, a former fur trade post of the Hudson's Bay Company ...

, established in 1827 by the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

, and was the first post established in

Coast Salish The Coast Salish peoples are a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak on ...

territory. The Fort was later moved 4 km to its present location in 1839. In 1858, when the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

arrived, they built barracks in Derby. All signs of the town and fort have since disappeared, with the locality now only an intersection in the middle of farmland. Its church, the Church of St. John the Divine, was moved across the river to what is now Maple Ridge, where it remains today. The only surviving trace of Derby on the map is the Derby Reach of the Fraser, which describes the northward arc of the Fraser south of Haney (Maple Ridge's downtown) and the associated Derby Reach Regional Park.

Name origin

The name is believed to be derived from that of the British Prime Minister in 1858, Edward Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (1799–1869).

References

* {{reflist 1827 establishments in Canada Populated places established in 1827 Langley, British Columbia (district municipality) Ghost towns in British Columbia Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby Hudson's Bay Company

Name origin

See also

References