Laires

Laires

Laren
Laires Laren
Commune
	The road into Laires
	Coat of arms
	show Location of Laires
	Laires Show map of FranceShow map of Hauts-de-FranceShow all
	Coordinates: 50°32′28″N 2°15′23″E / 50.5411°N 2.2564°ECoordinates: 50°32′28″N 2°15′23″E / 50.5411°N 2.2564°E
Country	France
Region	Hauts-de-France
Department	Pas-de-Calais
Arrondissement	Saint-Omer
Canton	Fruges
Intercommunality	Pays de Saint-Omer
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Eric Lagache
Area 1	8.64 km2 (3.34 sq mi)
Population (Jan. 2018)	368
• Density	43/km2 (110/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	62485 /62960
Elevation	140–190 m (460–620 ft) ; (avg. 182 m or 597 ft)
	1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Laires (West Flemish: Laren) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France.

Geography[]

A village situated 24 km (15 mi) south of Saint-Omer, on the D95 road. It is surrounded by the communes Beaumetz-lès-Aire, Prédefin and Fléchin.^[2]

Population[]

Historical population of Laires
Year	1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2006
Population	335	347	302	314	337	297	306
From the year 1962 on: No double counting—residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) are counted only once.

History[]

In 734, Laires was called "Wilbert", after its owner. The spelling of the name has changed over the centuries from Larae, Laris, Lares, Laire and Lare, to become Laires by the eighteenth century. In 1115, Baldwin VII, Count of Flanders, made a gift of the village to the abbey of St Saviour at Ham. In January 1478, a band of soldiers from the Burgundian garrison at Renescure terrorized the area around Laires. Instead of helping people to fight the "French enemy" they looted the village. Against the Spanish, the commune suffered again. In 1537 the area was completely devastated. In 1542 and 1543, the village was looted several times and fourteen French houses were burned down.