Aiglemont

Aiglemont is a common French, located in the department of the the Ardennes and the area Champagne-Ardenne.

Geography

History

Origin of the name

It is certainly not the mount of the eagle, simplistic explanation of the modern form of the mot. It was used besides for the German soldiers installed with Jallois between 1915 and 1918 to mark their presence. They registered on a terminal, after the name of their unit, Adlersberg (literally hill of the eagle) which in their spirits takes a double dimension: the place and especially the emblem of the imperial eagle.

It is rather necessary to seek before 1718, date of appearance of Aiglemont in the texts. In fact, the known most remote trace is a writing of April 1256 (the charter of Ida). Although it is question of Eslemont. But with the passing of years, the orthography evolves/moves, elemont, alemont, elmont, ellemont, ailmont, ailemont with or without T final, with or without capital letter, and this until the 18th century. It is what one finds in the parochial acts, but one employs for the official writings eslemont, the old form dating from the 13th century. In parallel one uses, in the Middle Ages of the term Aguilo Monte (1291). At the end of XVIe century, on the constitutive instrument of the village (1582), one finds Ayglemont being neighborly with Ailemont.

It seems that all these names turn around a common point: water. The Latin word aqua gave acute as former French (the ewer is a water jug). Into Celtic the radical ev, transformed itself at the time Roman are, ez or even aa. Acute-the-mount or be-the-mount, the mount of water, with the help of some installations of orthography answers the geographical reality of our village. Perched high on the hill, it is located on a genuine water tank.

Today Aiglemont is unique in France, and one does not find Elmon (T), nor of Ellemon (T), not more than of Elemon (T), Eslemont or Garlic (E) mount. There exists however Almont (Junies) in Aveyron, (Cuisy in) Almont in Aisne and Allemont in Isere.

Manicourt, a disappeared village

“They was four villages to still cross the only one time remains us to tell how the others disappeared in fire and blood, or in the lapse of memory, quite simply. ”

The district of the Fund of the Spine has a past. Until Ve century, Gallo-Roman villas were there. Vestiges were discovered at the XIXe century and later in 1931. Ruins, coins, potteries, jewels… indicated the presence of dwellings. After the decline of the Roman empire, the Barbarians being there for much, one does not know if the place were inhabited. But under the reign of Charlemagne, the few farms built at the beginning of the medieval era multiply and Manicourt becomes an important village.

This development could be explained by the deportation of the Saxon facts captive at the time of the 3rd war of Saxony, in XIIIe century. Moreover, the origin of the word Manicourt accredits this thesis. " Mani" comes from the manil term or ménil, firm of low importance in the Middle Ages. It is coupled with the suffix " court" derived from the novel curtis, dwelling of Master with independent grounds. The bringing together of the two expressions having an almost identical significance, can want to mean " small farm exploited by a colon". It should be noted that a variation of Nouvion-on-Meuse bears the name of Manicourt. The village of Manicourt is quoted in a charter of September 20th, 1264: " Manicourt delex Champeaux… " (Treasure of the Charters of the County of Rethel).

To the wire of time, the village still extends. Already in IXe century, one counts two groups of dwellings. The first enters the fountain of Tanimont and the road of Charleville, the other more important, in Grenet, i.e. with the entry of the Fund of the Spine. The fertile ground, the meadows rich in fodder and the very close forest, contributed to the development of the village until XVIe century.

The inhabitants, primarily a rural population, probably exceeded of number those of the surrounding hamlets. The houses were made solid walls, out of stones or blocks of lime bound by very hard white cement. Not very thick bricks were also employed.

However, this relative prosperity, will have a brutal end…

Champeau, the cradle of the worship of St Quentin

“Village appeared in the middle of the fields Deliver to us your secrecies of antan, Make re-appear wizards, soothsayers, listened or feared You Champeau, the cradle of the worship of Saint-Quentin” To the foot of the hill of our village, to a hundred meters of the old station, vestiges of a small building are still (with difficulty) visible. The ruins of the vault of St Quentin, surrounded by the old cemetery, mark the site of a more important masonry built in XIIe century in the place of a first oratory.

But how to explain the existence of a village at this place?

The origin of the name of the village is simple: Champeau is a small field. Very often, some dwellings appear in the middle of the fields, they form a village of champeaux. It should be noted that our village lost X final, contrary to other Champeaux existing in France (except Champeau in Coast-in Or).

On the other side of the railway, vis-a-vis the cemetery is the Ford of the Romans. MDorigny puts forth the assumption of a crossing of the Meuse by a secondary Roman way connecting two large arteries, Rheims - Trier and Rheims - Cologne. Mrs. Périn in a article published in 1969 speaks about a possibility of passage. Always it is that the ford existed and that it contributed certainly to the appearance of the first houses.

The evangelization of the Ardennes by the first missionaries borrowing the Roman ways also played a part in the creation of the village. Started towards Ve century in the central part of the department, it reaches orée of the forest only at the end of the Life century, period of arrival of Calabrian priests who settle close to Braux. In spite of the setting with died of the last druids, the rites remain and a new mythology develops: monsters, wizards and soothsayers are feared or listened. It is in this context that the priests undertake to transform paganism. They build small oratories, of which that of Champeau.

It is well around the oratory that the village developed, limited by the Term Champeau and Champeauchin.

The discoveries in 1901 and 1941, stone or brick bases, prove that some houses, undoubtedly of wood and cob left ground probably at the end of the Life or the beginning of VIIe century.

“It will have been necessary some many torments during these centuries spent, So that this village finds finally its parochial fastening. It could be about it to trust of its small vicarial vault With which it term of Saint Quentin was by the granted bishop”

The parochial fastening of Champeau evolved/moved during times. At the time mérovingienne, the village is attached to the parish of Arches. Towards 860, it is given to Francon, bishop of Liege, but spiritually remains dependant on the archbishop's palace of Rheims by its political affiliation of the kingdom of Lotharingie. With died of Lothaire II into 869, the kingdom is divided between Louis the Germanic one and Charles the Bald person. Champeau and Manicourt, located on Right Bank of the Meuse, are then pledged to the Saint Worsens Romain Germanique (county of Orchimont). But spiritual fastening remains Rheims, and Francon must give up its temporal influence on the villages of Right Bank. At the very least original situation, since the ecclesiastical benefit do not concern the crown but the empire, therefore not subjected to the ten-per-cent taxes which the popes concede with kings de France.

End IXe century, Hincmar, the archbishop of Rheims, detaches Champeau of the parish of Arches to entrust it to the chapter of Braux. The term of Saint Quentin is given to the vault as of IXe century, since Foulques the Worthy one, successor of Hincmar, written in its charter in favor of collegial of Braux: capellam Sancti Quintini Campelli (the vault of Saint Quentin of Champeau). One finds the same terms in the vidimus of the archbishop Juhelle de Mathefelon (1249).

The small vicarial vault is replaced in XIIe century by a church, financed mainly by the lords of Gély. It served the villages of Ellemont, Manicourt and Gély about which we will speak soon.

Gely, the village and the castle

In XIIe century, the church of Champeau was mainly financed by the lords of Gély. A way in the North-East of the vault goes up in wood and joined the localities Vieux and Young Gély, with the northern limit of the territory. It is difficult to date construction from the castle which was there, but it had a base and cellars out of stones. The first castles of this type date from Xe century, the precedents being of wood like those of Macéria (Wall) or Wart (Warcq). We do not have more details on the name of the first builder. Was this a gangster as in Lumes or Linchamps? He and its descendants did not leave of trace. They undoubtedly did not depend on any sovereign.

A village was constituted around this castle. It was hardly important, about fifty inhabitants. Those attended the offices with the church of Champeau. However the priest of Gespunsart, on which depended Gély, ceased perceiving his royalty at the XVIIe century: the inhabitants probably left the village about 1640. The castle was undoubtedly destroyed one century before, in 1521 as Dom Christmas proposes it, but without argument or proof. The wood and the grounds of Gély became property of the abbey of Laval-God at the XVIIe century and leased with an inhabitant of Aiglemont. In 1770 the stones of the cellars were recovered by the lord of Neufmanil to build the dependences of its castle.

The disappearance of the villages of Manicourt and Champeau

The villages of Manicourt and Champeau, we saw it in the preceding chronicles, developed until the beginning of XVIe century. The last known text which mentions two village is the register of Noblet which goes back to 1540. They is probably a few years after this date which they disappeared. Dom Christmas locates their a little front destruction (1521).

First half of XVIe century was marked in the surroundings of our commune by tragic events.

In 1521, Charles-Quint makes an incursion until Mouzon to punish Robert of Marck, duke of Bubble, his plunderings. He occupies this village, and its inhabitants take refuge in Mézières defended by Pierre of Terrail known as " the Bayard" knight;. The count de Nassau, lieutenant of Charles-Quint decides to make the seat of Wall with 35.000 men. A advanced line passes to the south-east of Manicourt. But the seat of Wall turns short at the end of 6semaines, after Bayard employed the trick by writing a false letter.

According to Dom Christmas, the invaders, private of the setting with bag of the city, are turned over against the villages which they cross in their retirement towards Picardy. Manicourt, which has certainly " hébergé" men of Franz de Sickingen, the second of the count de Nassau, is destroyed by fire. The army crosses the Meuse by the ford of the Romans and devastates probably Champeau. Plunderings and fires follow one another along Sormonne, they are the traces of the passage of the men of Charles-Quint in the Ardennes.

It however seems that the church of Champeau resisted fire, since Noblet speaks about it in its register (1540). Was it only, ravaged in the middle of the ruins or simply intact for the canons, who thus continued to perceive the dîme? The inhabitants of the devastated villages gather in Ellemont and build a new church on the hill (about 1580).

Th. Pierret, then A. Champeaux have a different version. The two villages are destroyed about 1560 by the Germans confined in the castle of Lumes delivered by the lord of Buzancy.

1521 or about 1560, it is difficult to date. However, Champeau remains still a long time in the memory of its inhabitants, since they bury their deaths until 1879 and that they build on the site of the church with his debris, a small vault dedicated to St - Quentin. The date of this construction is not precise, even if the mention About 1634 were engraved on a stone of the northern window. This inscription was undoubtedly not made at the XVIIe century, but more recently.

The fourth village: Aiglemont

On the hill dominating the Meuse, there for a long time exist dispersed dwellings. Before Xe century, the forest starts to be cleared by peasants who burn a few arpents of wood to be able to cultivate. In fact the sarts, sometimes, bear the name of their owners. Noyensart, the sart of Noyen (or new the sart) exists in the north of the village. During six or seven centuries, each family lives on her ground in the middle of her sart and very close to her water point. The habitat is very dispersed. Farms were grouped in the low part of the village, others at the northern end of the village to the Voye locality of Manils. Two ways are still existing, Voye of Manils high and low. Marcel DORIGNY speaks about a strong house located below the second way and country houses grouped at a few tens of meters around a fountain, Ferbu-Fountain. The families unite with the inhabitants of the villages of MANICOURT, CHAMPEAU, GÉLY and of the houses located at Warenne and with Pre of Courtil, to attend the offices in the church of CHAMPEAU.

The checking of the existence of the houses is difficult, even impossible. Moreover, the exploitation of the sand pits destroyed the vestiges of surface. There remain only some structures of well as to the Wall plate located at 50 meters in the south of the martyrdom, which caused many interrogations and fed some rumors.

Marcel DORIGNY reports that this cavity was known for a long time. Carriers stopped it in 1890. The inhabitants claimed that it was about a driving underground either to the castle of Gély, or with that of Aiglemont. In 1934, the mystery is raised by Misters BOURGAIN, Albert and Emile GUEURY and APRIL. It is well a well of farm. They find there vestiges of a chain and of a bucket, as well as the carbonized wood remains, the dwelling indeed was burnt. When? Difficult to say, the more so as they also discover human bones and animals. Crime or act of war, the well maintained its secrecy forever.

We saw that starting from Xe century, there existed on the hill of the small groups of dwellings. Until the end of XIVe century, the situation hardly develops. The beginning of XVIe century is marked by epidemics of plague. Moreover the famine makes rage, the year 1506 is terrible. And the war does not arrange anything, the village suffers like the others from plunderings and the destruction. A plan of the time of the seat of Wall (1521), watch besides the site of the trenches dug by the inhabitants of the neighborhoods. Certain defenses cross the fields of the Fund of the Spine.

After the destruction of Manicourt, Champeau and Ellemont, at the time of the retirement of the troops of Sickingen, only Ellemont reappears of its ruins. The inhabitants of the first two villages join the heights and a church is built in 1580. Houses are established around its solid walls. From the end of XVIe century, the habitat gathers to form an embryo of agglomeration.

The population is not very important yet. On the act of banality of the mills of Ellemont (1585), one finds 18 family names different. The population increases gradually. At the XVIIe century, one counts 200 communicants in the parish. At the beginning of the XVIIIe century, Saugrain counts 51 fires is between 200 and 250 inhabitants, which recuts the counting of the communicants. At the end of the century, 250 communicants are indexed either more than 300 inhabitants. With the revolution, the population reaches 500 people.

The progression was thus slow, but significant. Ellemont became at the dawn of the XVIIIe century, a true village.

Aiglemont at the XIXe century

We saw that the village increased little by little. At the end of the 18th century, it counts approximately 500 inhabitants. In 1820, one counts 681 residents and nearly 800 in 1836. It is the maximum which one can count at the XIXe century, since the number goes then, while decreasing: 746 in 1855,692 in 1876 and 594 in 1896. The existing streets at the 18th century, street of the Hedge, street Which Slips, street Basse and street of Wall lengthen towards Neufmanil, (Idiots) Grandville and Mézières. They are narrow and laid out in squaring around the church, they are made partly of two parallel lanes separated by small constructions: shops being used for the nailsmiths. An investigation of year IX (1802) counts 50 nailsmiths after the revolution. This number grows in first half of 19th. One counts in 1852,169 workmen (154 men, 11 boys of less than 15 years, 2 women and 2 young girls of less than 15 years) divided in more the 80boutiques ones. They gain on average per day 1,25 franc (man), 1 franc (woman and boy), 0,90 franc (young girl). Practically all the men of Aiglemont work with the shop, the activity is remunerative. Saturday evening or Sunday morning, the nailsmiths will deliver, i.e. to carry their productions to the representatives of the houses the large one of Charleville. Before 1855, the latter deliver the nails to Charleville, Sedan and even in Rheims.

The work conditions are however very hard. The shop, open towards north, overheated by the hearth, badly ventilated is often tiny. The workman works 6 days per week there, curved on his anvil, breathing the coal dust, lit only by the forging mill. He undergoes sometimes heat overpowering in summer, or the drafts in winter. The diseases are not rare, asthma or bronchitis. Moreover, alcohol does not arrange the things. The morning, the nailsmith accompanies his bowl by black coffee by brandy of plums, the drop. In end of the week, after the delivery of its work, it goes to the coffee. In 1880, one counts 12 inns with Aiglemont. One consumes there much beer, the drop and brandy of juniper, the péquet. As much to say that the pay of the nailsmith does not return often intact to the house… Let us not forget also his/her faithful companion, the chouffleux dog, which runs during 10 hours in a large wheel out of wooden, being used to actuate the bellows.

The nail factory with hand is rudimentary, even if she knows an improvement at the beginning of 19th, the rabatteuse one, kind of machine to stamp the head of the nail. It is competed with by the first introduced machines with Charleville by Lolot and Whitacker in 1826. These trades with nails manufacture up to 200 units at the minute at a cost price lower of almost 15% than the manual manufacturing cost. The nailsmiths, already touched by the commercial crisis under the reign of Louis Philippe (about 1845), remain despite everything until the end of the century…

Aiglemont, end of 19th and the beginning of the XXe century

In 1880, the nail factory with hand counts 70 more shops. The majority of the men of the village still work iron. The workmen earn their living well, up to 20 francs per week. But the machines, gradually, will have the last mot. the beginning of the XXe century sees the closing of the last shops.

In parallel, it developed a trade rising from the nail factory, the ironwork. Initially with the hand, it becomes mechanical. All Saints' day Gueury works for a long time for the armament (as from 1801). It manufactures packing extractor and small parts for the Manufacture of Charleville. In 1836, Manufacture is removed. The heirs to All Saints' day and the workmen perpetuate the tradition of the ironwork, in particular with the Large Shop which is street Basse, behind the current town hall. One works there with the hand. The hammer is still used, but it is not any more of the nails but one forges. The nail factories disappear, and the workmen recycle themselves. In 1914, there is a hundred ironworkers. New phenomenon, a score of others work in the close villages or at the city.

In the middle of the XIXe century also the foundry develops. Not in Aiglemont, but we will see the effect of this development on the village. In 1848, the Corneau brothers create a foundry with Charleville and they employ little time after 200 workmen. In 1853, one of the brothers comes to drive out in the North-East of the commune. It collects a ground handle of taupinière and makes it analyze. It has just discovered an excellent sand of foundry. The careers of Wall plate are open in 1854. It is Regnault-Charlier which draws sand for the Corneau foundry. It extracts a tipcart per day, paid 5 francs is double wages of that of a very good nailsmith, even if it transfers 30 centimes per ton with the commune. Other carriers flow soon, the Towing-rope, Michel, April… All the places are prospected, of the fields and of wood are exploited, without great precautions. Wall plate, the Cross Up there, the road of Grandville, Tarne, the Mounds, all these places is put at bag.

This extraction remains until half of the XXe century. The last open career is road of Granville. Pol. and Gilbert MICHEL charged the last truck in 1954.

This year there: AIGLEMONT in 1926

Aiglemont counted 620 inhabitants, its mayor was Jules Guillemin and his assistant Louis Couvreur. They were surrounded by 10 city council men: Sirs Cordier, Bourgery, Champeaux, Colas, Soft, Nicole, Dangy, Binet, Remy and Titeux. The teacher was Mr Couturier and the teacher Mrs Tranchart.

Mr Hénon was it rural policeman, the priest of the parish the Bourguin father and the secretary of town hall Mr Couturier. There was also a sporting company: " Montagnards" whose president was Mr Marcel Magot.

Side animation, one counted two important festivals: the local fair which took place 2nd Sunday of July and the employers' festival, Sunday after All Saints' day.

In 1926, Aiglemont had 38 trade and companies. Certain names are not unknown for us. Some companies of the time exist still today.

5 landlords: 3 butchers: 1 baker: 1 brewer: 4 carriers: 1 roofer: 4 farmers: 1 contractor: 2 grocers: 7 ironworkers: 1 shoeing marshal: 3 carpenters: 2 messengers: 2 plasterers: 1 tobacco: Pelette, Hamel, Remy, Proveux, Roger. Vacherand, Henin, Simonet. Marchal. Sleeve. April, Bailly, Michel, Titeux. Pilgrim. Bajot, Delahaut, Michel, Remy. Schenmetzler-Dardenne. Cooperative society, Of the Ardennes Docks. Rope-maker, Champeaux, Soft, Guillemin, Philippe, Nest egg, Migeot. Colas. Proveux, Raulin, Titeux. April, Hussenet. Colas-Lurot, Raulin. Hamel.

Administration

Demography

Places and monuments

Personalities related to the commune

See too

Common of the Ardennes

External bonds

Internet site of the commune
Aiglemont on the site of the national geographical Institute
Aiglemont on the site of INSEE
Aiglemont on the site of Quid
Localization of Aiglemont on a chart of France and communes bordering
Plane on Aiglemont on Mapquest

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