There, volume 2 is at the printing house. It should hit the press in a few days. With around forty more pages, “because a lot of people who bought the first book from me brought me pictures when they came to pick it up. So, I made a sort of photo album of the village. Anyway, if I don’t do this, the photos will be lost forever…”specifies the author with a smile.
In this second part, it is mainly about businesses, schools, postal services, professions of public utility (he has listed all doctors, pharmacists and midwives since 1800), the two world wars and even the mines which ran under the couthinois soil. “It’s hard to believe today when you walk around Couthuin, but there were indeed coal mines at the bottom of the village.” Mines which employed dozens of men and which, like agriculture, attracted quite a few families to the area. “It’s crazy to think that in 1800, Belgium had 2 million inhabitants compared to more than five times more today, whereas in Couthuin, there were more inhabitants in 1800 than now, several hundred altogether. difference! This shows if the village was rich…”, the author is still surprised.
“I’m doing this for fun, I’m just listing my documents”
When we ask Thierry Delgaudinne what motivates him to publish books about his village, he first bursts into a burst of laughter. “I only do this to please myself! Anyway, these books only interest me!” When we point out to him that no, certainly not, and that he is in fact one of Couthuin’s living memories, we feel the man a little embarrassed. “I’ve been doing this all my life, collecting documents. I actually don’t get much credit: I’m just listing all these documents in my books. The memory of the village? No, that’s too pretentious…”
Yet it is a reality, whether he likes it or not. Besides, people know it. And in addition to the thousands of postcards, photos, original documents, copies… that he has unearthed and accumulated in his office over the years with his wife Betty, Thierry also receives them from people who come to him without him didn’t ask for anything. Just aware that these documents could interest the author as treasures and that the latter will be able to offer them a setting, showcase them…
“There are things here that only happen in Couthuin…”
Volume 3 of “Gens de Couthuin” will revolve around the three other villages of the entity (Héron, Warêt-l’Évêque and Lavoir) while the fourth and last will evoke the 50 years that have passed since the merger of the Communes. With, in these again, slices of life, events of an entire community and juicy anecdotes. “Couthuin is really a special village, there are things here that only happen hereassures Thierry Delgaudinne with a smile. For example, everywhere, the church is in the middle of the village… Not here, it is in the back of the village. And then, there were several disappearances and crimes in Couthuin and, in Couthuin, we never find who it is!” Except in the early 1900s, when a Couthinoise woman was arrested for having killed her husband. She was tried by… the first assize court of Huy, in 1919. Another particularity that only the local author could note…
> Thierry Delgaudinne’s books can be obtained directly from him. 0496/99 21 80 or [email protected]
