This Eure village of 600 inhabitants had up to 78 clog makers!

See my news
Follow The Norman Awakening

Recently, André DupreyBretolian historian spoke to us about the importance of jobs in the castles around the 9th century^e century in the south of Eure. At that time, the canton of Breteuil (Eure) was known for being home to certain trades more than others.

Agriculture did not occupy the first place in employment

Obviously, agriculture was very present. However, it did not represent the majority of jobs. Others, which no longer exist today, occupied a considerable place in the world of work in the sector.

The forest representing a large part of the territory, it played an essential role and had an obvious impact on the way of life of the inhabitants. Its presence justified in particular a significant number of clog makers in the south of the Eure.

The village of 78 clog makers

André Duprey chose to concentrate his research on the village of Sainte-Marguerite-de-l'Autel (Le Lesme, Eure), which is a perfect example. Ideally located between the forest of Breteuil and that of Conches-en-Ouche (Eure), it was very suitable for woodworking.

If the municipalities of Guernanville (Le Lesme, Eure) and Baux-de-Breteuil (Eure) had a few saboteurit was indeed in Sainte-Marguerite that we found “an impressive number”.

According to our historian's research, censuses showed that in 1891, one hundred jobs were linked to wood in this village of 630 inhabitants that year. Among them, eleven lumberjacks, seven forest guards, two charcoal burners, a basket maker, a woodworker. But the most astonishing figure concerns the clog makers who numbered 78 in Sainte-Marguerite-de-l'Autel alone.

All these people lived in the different hamlets of Sainte-Marguerite, in direct proximity to the forest.

In 1906, the number of inhabitants dropped to 543 and so did the number of clog makers. “From seventy-eight we go to forty-eight clog makers,” says André Duprey. More precisely twenty-three bosses and twenty-five workers.

Iron employed men and women

In the rest of the canton of Breteuil, these are also the ironworkers which were very numerous, particularly in the communes of Francheville (Verneuil d'Avre and d'Iton, Eure), La Guéroulde, Cintray (Breteuil, Eure) and even Bémécourt (Eure).

In 1891, these four communes brought together 3,291 inhabitants among whom 834 people worked iron, i.e. 25 %.

This figure is even lower than reality since in certain families, women and adolescents were not listed as workers but still worked in the forge.

In fact, many women devoted their main activity to ironwork. In Francheville (Eure), still in 1891, 532 inhabitants out of 1,531 were ironworkers, including 156 who were women.

They made objects intended for harnessing horses

This territory covered in forest was ideal terrain with the presence of iron ore, as well as wood which made it possible to heat the ovens. A wholesaler then brought the raw material to the ironworker.

He melted iron in his furnaces before transforming the molten material into different objects, most of the time used for harnessing horses.

Like the woodworking trades, “ironwork was part of village life”.

Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon Actu.