Strathroy-Caradoc is a municipality located in Southwestern

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. It is west of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Strathroy-Caradoc is a primarily rural municipality. Industries include

turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

and

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domestication, domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey junglefowl, grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster ...

hatching and processing,

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn ( North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. ...

, tobacco, automotive, and pharmaceutical. Some industrial products are manufactured in Strathroy, the township's largest locality and its commercial, cultural and industrial centre. Strathroy's hatcheries have seen it referred to as the turkey capital of Canada and even the world. Settlements within Strathroy-Caradoc largely grew up around the Sydenham River and the southwestern Ontario railways. Three major railway lines pass through the municipality: the CN (

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

) Chatham Subdivision (connecting Windsor and London, Ontario), the CP (

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canad ...

) Windsor Subdivision (also connecting Windsor and London), and the CN Strathroy Subdivision (connecting London and Sarnia,

). Municipally, Strathroy-Caradoc is within Middlesex County. At the federal and provincial levels of government it is represented by the riding of Lambton—Kent—Middlesex. It is part of the

census metropolitan area.

Communities

Strathroy-Caradoc's two largest communities are Strathroy and Mount Brydges. The township also contains the smaller communities of Cairngorm, Campbellvale, Caradoc, Christina, Falconbridge, Glen Oak, Longwood, Melbourne (part) and Muncey.

Strathroy

Strathroy is 35 kilometres west of the City of London, Ontario, and is the largest community in Middlesex County outside London. The community is situated next to Highway 402 between

and the border to

Port Huron, Michigan Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately. Located along the St. Clair ...

, U.S. at Sarnia,

. Strathroy's economy is diverse, and major industries include automotive

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a ...

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...

and

food processing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex industr ...

. The township's administrative offices are located in Strathroy.

Mount Brydges

Mount Brydges has a small commercial "downtown" featuring mostly local businesses and shops. Local agriculture includes

, tobacco, soybeans and ginseng. The soil composition of the region is largely sandy (a phenomenon referred to locally as the " Caradoc Sand Plains") as a result of deposits created on the bottom of the glacial Lake Whittlesey which covered the area approximately 13,000 years ago. The village came into existence as a result of the construction of the western division of the Great Western Railroad from City of London, Ontario to

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southe ...

, at the point where it crossed the existing road from Delaware, Ontario to Strathroy. This crossing happened to be at the point of greatest elevation on this division, the railroad having just climbed out of the valley of the Thames River from London. The station was named for

Charles John Brydges Charles John Brydges (23 February 1827 in London, England – 16 February 1889 in Winnipeg) was the son of Thomas and Mary Brydges. He was baptized on 30 May 1827 at Saint Leonards, Shoreditch, London, England. As a young man he learned railw ...

, the managing director of the Grand Trunk Railway from 1861 to 1874. The earlier name ''Carradoc'' was replaced in 1856.

History

Strathroy was first settled in 1832 by

John Stewart Buchanan John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

, accompanied by the explorer Sir Michael Jacques, at a location on the Sydenham River with flow and fall sufficient to power a

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

. A general store opened in the settlement in 1840. Strathroy was incorporated as a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in 1860 and became a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than city, cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares ...

in 1872 under the motto "We Advance". Buchanan named the settlement after his hometown of Strathroy in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, now a suburb of Omagh in County Tyrone,

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

. In 1866, ''The Age'' newspaper was established to compete with the already-established ''Western Dispatch'' newspaper. The ''Western Dispatch'' was purchased by ''The Age'' in 1923, which later became ''The Age Dispatch''. The newspaper is still published weekly. From 1867 to 1945 the Mount Elgin Indian Residential School operated in Muncey. Sir Arthur Currie, who would later become the commander of Canadian forces in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, was born here on December 5, 1875. In the fall of 1876, Bixel Brewery opened in Strathroy, producing lager beer for a century before its closing. Other breweries in the town have included the "Western Steam Brewery", "Strathroy Brewing and Malting" and "West End Brewery". In 1896, the Strathroy Furniture Company opened its doors, and was renowned for nearly a century for making residential furniture. On July 15, 1992, the company declared bankruptcy and a liquidation sale was held in October 1992. On February 14, 1914, the first patients were admitted to what would become

Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital Strathroy may refer to: * Strathroy, a suburb of Omagh in Tyrone County, Northern Ireland, and municipalities named after it, including: * Strathroy-Caradoc, Ontario, Canada * Strathroy, located in KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referre ...

. At the time, the hospital was municipally owned. The current building opened on June 23, 1962, as a two-story structure with 82 beds. The hospital was the location at which Native Canadian

Dudley George The Ipperwash Crisis was a dispute over Indigenous land that took place in Ipperwash Provincial Park, Ontario, in 1995. Several members of the Stoney Point Ojibway band occupied the park to assert claim to nearby land which had been expropriat ...

succumbed to the gunshot wound he suffered at the Ipperwash Standoff at nearby

Ipperwash Provincial Park Ipperwash Provincial Park is a former provincial park on the shores of southern Lake Huron in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. Located near Grand Bend, the park was established in 1936. It contains a long sandy beach on the lakeshore, as w ...

on September 7, 1995. On January 13, 1954,

West Middlesex Memorial Arena West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

opened in Strathroy. To commemorate the occasion, the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

played an exhibition game at the arena, defeating the local Junior 'B' team the Strathroy Rockets 14–3 in front of 3,100 spectators. In 2001, Strathroy merged with the former township of Caradoc to created the town of Strathroy-Caradoc. On March 22, 2004, the town's 117-year-old

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing ...

was destroyed by a fire that took more than 35 firefighters to get under control. Adolescent boys were charged with starting the fire. In 2005, Strathroy was connected to the Lake Huron Water Pipeline. This ended the town's existing reliance on

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidat ...

and wells. On August 10, 2016, an

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

supporter from Strathroy, Aaron Driver, was killed in a taxi outside his home, after being shot by

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

and detonating one of two homemade bombs. The taxi driver was injured. Police suspected he intended to commit a suicide bombing in another public place.

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, Strathroy-Caradoc 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.

Climate

Education

Strathroy has two secondary schools that share basic facilities,

Strathroy District Collegiate Institute Strathroy District Collegiate Institute (SDCI) is one of two secondary schools in Strathroy, Ontario. It is a public high school in the Thames Valley District School Board. The school services feeder schools in the Strathroy area, as well as t ...

and Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School. Each serves the town and its outlying area. Strathroy was ranked 161st out of 714 Ontario secondary schools in 2007/2008 by the Fraser Institute's Report on Ontario Secondary Schools.Search for research, news, magazines, presentations, commentaries or articles
. Fraser Institute. Retrieved on 2013-10-05. Holy Cross was ranked 339th out of 714 in the same report.

Media

Strathroy has two weekly newspapers, ''The Age Dispatch'' and the ''Middlesex Banner'', and a radio station, 105.7 myFM (

CJMI-FM CJMI-FM, branded as ''105.7 myFM'', is an FM radio station located in Strathroy, Ontario, Canada. Owned by My Broadcasting Corporation My Broadcasting Corporation is a Canadian broadcasting company founded in 2004 by Jon Pole and Andrew Di ...

), which provides local news and sports coverage. The region is otherwise served by media from

Events

Strathroy's largest annual event is the Strathroy Hometown Turkey Festival, also known as Turkeyfest, run in June. The town is home to the headquarters of

Cuddy Farms Cuddy may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places in the United States * Cuddy, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * Cuddy Valley, California * Cuddy Canyon, California People and fictional characters * Cuddy (surname) * Edward Aburrow Sr. (1714/1715 ...

, the world's top turkey-hatching company. In July 2020, Strathroy saw its first Pride flag raising. Due to COVID-19, events were held virtually. In 2021, Strathroy Pride was present at the downtown Market throughout June and July, and was able to invite folks to see the flag raising in person.

Sports

West Middlesex Memorial Centre - Strathroy, ON

Strathroy is home to the Strathroy Rockets of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League and the Strathroy Royals baseball team. Mount Brydges is home to the

Mount Brydges Bulldogs The Mount Brydges Bulldogs are a Junior ice hockey team based in Mount Brydges, Ontario, Canada. They play in the Provincial Junior Hockey League and are three-time provincial champions. History The Mount Brydges Bulldogs were founded in 1975 as ...

of the Southern Ontario Junior Hockey League. The Strathroy Rockets won the Championship of the Western Ontario Hockey League in its final season in 2007.

Notable people

* Nathan Beaulieu,

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the latter a reference t ...

for the Winnipeg Jets and 2011 Memorial Cup Champion *

Harry H. Bentley Harry Bentley (1852–1922) (sometimes written as Henry Bentley) was a politician in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. He was the city's second and fifth mayor, serving during 1892–1893 and 1896–1898. His great grandson is former Alberta MLA Jim ...

, politician * Robert Brett, politician, physician *

Brian Campbell Brian Wesley Campbell (born May 23, 1979) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman. He played for the Buffalo Sabres, San Jose Sharks, Chicago Blackhawks and Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League (NHL). He won the Stanl ...

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...

All-Star

and 2010 Stanley Cup Champion. * William W. Chalmers * Lawson Crouse, ice hockey player * Arthur Currie, commander of the Canadian Corps during the First World War. *

Chris Daw Christopher Daw (born February 1, 1970, in North York, Ontario) is a Paralympian who's name goes into the Canadian sports history books as one of its most versatile athletes. He has competed in adaptive track, marathons, wheelchair basketball ...

, Mutli attending Paralympic athlete and 2006 wheelchair curling Gold medalist * Darryl Edestrand,

hockey player * Francis Henry Keefer, Canadian lawyer and politician * Rapley Holmes (1868 – 1928) - Stage and screen actor *

Penn Kemp Patricia Penn Anne Kemp (born 1944), better known simply as Penn Kemp, is a Canadian poet, novelist, playwright, and sound poet who lives in London, Ontario. Kemp has been publishing her writing since 1972 and was London's first poet laureate, serv ...

(b.1944), poet * Alexander Knox (1907–1995), actor and author * William Bethune Lindsay, chief

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

of the Canadian Corps in the First World War. * The Hon.

Charles Herbert Mackintosh The Honourable Charles Herbert Mackintosh (May 13, 1843 – December 22, 1931) was a Canadian journalist and author, newspaper owner and editor, and politician. He served as mayor of Ottawa from 1879 to 1881, represented the City of Ottawa as ...

(1843–1931), town councillor, Strathroy, owner of the ''Strathroy Dispatch'', later mayor of Ottawa, owner of the ''Ottawa Citizen'',

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

, and lieutenant-governor (1893–1898) of the old Northwest Territories *

John Burton Martyn John Burton Martyn (July 22, 1867 – 1921) was an Ontario physician and political figure. He represented Lambton East in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1914 to 1919 as a Conservative member. He was born in Strathroy, Ontario and ...

, politician * Andy McDonald, retired

All-Star forward and 2007 Stanley Cup Champion *

Steve McKichan Steve McKichan (born May 29, 1967) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender. Drafted out of Miami University by the Vancouver Canucks in the 1988 NHL Supplemental Draft, McKichan played one game in the National Hockey League with th ...

, former NHL player, and former goalie coach for the

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Divi ...

* Tara McLeod, guitarist for Ontario-based metal band

Kittie Kittie is a Canadian Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in London, Ontario in 1996. All of their material has been released through independent record labels, which to date includes six studio albums, one video album, four extended plays ...

* George Orton, Canada's first Olympic champion, born in Strathroy in 1873. Won a gold medal for the Canada in the steeplechase event at the 1900 Olympics * Cole Pearn, former NASCAR Cup Series crew chief, won championship in 2017 with Martin Truex Jr.. * Warren Rychel,

hockey player * Seth,

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary an ...

and author of '' It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken'' that is set in Strathroy and

Southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is dis ...

. * James T. Shotwell * Pat Stapleton, retired Canadian ice hockey defenceman who played 15 seasons in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...

and the World Hockey Association *

Mike Stapleton Michael Patrick Stapleton (born May 5, 1966) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played fourteen seasons in the National Hockey League from 1986 until 2001. Throughout his career Stapleton played for the Chicago Blackhawks, Pit ...

, retired ice hockey forward who played 697 games for 8 NHL teams, and won a silver medal at the 1986 World Junior Championships. * Janaya Stephens, film actress * Kimberly Tuck, curler * Don Van Massenhoven,