Bruay-la-Buissière is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region in northern France.

Geography

It is a former coalmining town some 6 mi southwest of Béthune and 30 mi southwest of Lille, at the junction of the D57 and the N47 roads.

History

With four coal mines, it was the headquarters of the Bruay Mining Company. The coal mines closed during the 1960s, to be replaced by light industrial work and chemical factories. In April 1972 the murder of miner's daughter Brigitte Dewevre became a politicized event when Pierre Leroy, a local middle-class lawyer associated with the local mining company, was arrested: La Cause du Peuple, the paper of the Maoist Gauche prolétarienne, publicized the case with the headline 'Bruay: And Now They Are Massacring Our Children!' The two former communes of Bruay-en-Artois and Labuissière were joined as one commune in 1987.

Population

The population data given in the table and graph below for 1982 and earlier refer to the former commune of Bruay-en-Artois.

Sights