Craigflower Country:
A History of View Royal, 1850-1950
Author: Maureen Duffus
Published 2011, Victoria, BC
Town and Gown Press
ISBN 978-0-9733809-2-7
Trade Paperback, 198 pages, 8 x 10
$27.95 CDN
Reviews
- An Historic Visit to Craigflower Country
Bonnie Bowman, Esquimalt News, November 1993 - A disgruntled reviewer and a reader's reply
Times-Colonist, Dec. 1993
Excerpts
Original Edition
No Longer in Print
Published 1993, Victoria, BC
ISBN 1-895332-08-7
Soft cover, 126 pages plus index, bibliography
Includes photos, illustrations and maps throughout text
A Hudson's Bay Company Model Farm
View Royal, formerly known as Craigflower Country, was part of the larger Esquimalt district from the early days of Fort Victoria. Its history is linked to the colonial beginnings of British Columbia and its capital city, Victoria.
Craigflower was one of four large farms established by the Hudson's Bay Company when the British government required settlers for the Colony of Vancouver's Island, to safeguard against American hopes of northern expansion. The Company reluctantly financed the first European settlers to encroach in its fur trade domain. The 1856 Craigflower farmhouse, a landmark in View Royal, is one of only five remaining colonial buildings in Victoria.
This illustrated history looks back on View Royal's First Nations heritage, it's place in Governor James Douglas's vision for the new colony, its importance to the Royal Navy in Esquimalt Harbour, and its transition from a sparsely populated farming community to a modern residential suburb that still celebrates its past heritage - including two of British Columbia's oldest pubs still thriving on their original sites.
New photographs and new research that have come to light since the book was first published in 1993 will be included, but the early history remains essentially the same.
Visit the View Royal Archives.