Forging mills of Hennebont - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

The Forges of Hennebont are an old iron and steel establishment, located at Inzinzac-Lochrist (Morbihan).

Located in edge of the Blavet, with a score of kilometers of Lorient, the commune of Inzinzac-Lochrist must its extension to the forging mills of Kerglaw and known Lochrist under the name of Forges of Hennebont .

To meet the needs increasing for the Canning facility S of vegetables and fish of the south of the Brittany, the Trottier brothers planned as of 1860 creation, on the commune of Inzinzac-Lochrist, of a metallurgical factory .

It will belong successively:

of 1861 to 1880, with the brothers Trottier,
of 1880 to 1937, with the Company of French Waxings,
of 1937 to 1949, at the Company of the Forging mills of Hennebont and the Dunes (Firminy Group),
of 1949 to 1966, at the Company “Forging mills of Hennebont”.

History

In 1860, at the time of the industrial revolution, of the Treaty of free trade with the England, of the rise of the canning facility on the Breton littoral, Emile and Henri Trottier, Engineer S of Arts and Trades of Angers, based the “iron Factory” on their “property of Kerglaw” in Inzinzac-Lochrist, Right Bank of the channel of the Blavet.

The choice of the site was justified by several criteria:

the Blavet and with four kilometers, the river port of Hennebont (chief town of canton) connects their fleet to the seaport of Lorient for the traffics wood-coal with the England.
forests close for the supply to wood and Charcoal.
two stoppings on Blavet providing a hydraulic power not very expensive.
the rise of the fish canning facility, consuming Tinplate.
rural, abundant and cheap labor.

Fast increase in production in sheet, tinplate, iron-black, cast iron and pipes out of wooden of Coltar…

1868 : installation of the first Printing works on metals in France.
1869 : the Trottier brothers buy the island of Lochrist Locastel, with 500 meters of Kerglaw; the forging mills then consist of two factories:

the factory of Lochrist where are installed the Laminoir S in 1872.
the factory of Kerglaw which produces rolled iron, of sheets and the tinplate.

In 1880, Trottier enter the bosom of powerful Compagnie of French Waxings, with the industrial activities and commercial multiple between the Europe and the Russia. From now on the Forging mills of Hennebont are seen equipped with Open hearth furnace for the production of Acier, (accelerating their production), and of constructions of workshops between the zone of the dams Kerglaw it Montagne and that of the Bief of Lochrist.

As of 1900, the workmen create a relief fund, a working center of education, a Syndicat and its hearth.

1903 : following the suppression of the premium for the Sunday cleaning of the furnaces, release of the first important strike of the site. It will last forty days. The riots and the confrontations between striker and police force multiply. More than 2000 people ravel in the streets. Given up by the Public authorities, the company of French Waxings capitulates, it is the victory of the strikers.
1906 : the workmen assert the 8 hours day. The strike will last 115 days to lead to a failure felt hard by the workmen and their family.

After these difficult years of the Egré-Giband directions, it will return, in 1912, with the mining engineer, Camille-Horace Herwegh, in the context favorable to the industry of armament of the war 1914-18, to complete the architectural and social structures iron and steel center of Brittany; it until the day before Second world war. It will modernize the Open hearth furnace and will create a Fonderie Bronze and of steel.

1936, year of the Popular front and new strike: the workmen obtain two weeks of Paid vacations and a pay rise of 12%.

In 1938, labor reaches the figure of 3.000, and Camille-Horace Herwegh, like its predecessors of the direction of the forging mills, sits like Maire with the town hall of Hennebont.

In spite of the working push of 1946, the threat of closing weighs on this regional unit as of the plane Monnet, the new distribution of the iron and steel concentrations between north and is, the novel methods of rolling, Usinor and Sollac.

The modernization plan of the forging mills, led 1950 to 1958 by the Pairault-Gane direction with an investment of 45 million old francs, is not enough to rectify turnover of production and whose decline is accentuated.

1963 : the company files for bankruptcy, but continuous to function thanks to a state aid. This failure results from the geographical location of the forging mills, with the outdatedness of the material and a poor management; creation of the “oath of Hennebont” engaging the workmen blacksmiths and the inhabitants to fight against the programmed closing of the forging mills and to swear to remain plain to save the forging mills.

In spite of the granted moratorium, fights of the local population and organizations of defense, the government decides closing of the forging mills of Hennebont by ministerial Décret of May 18th 1966.

The forging mills of Hennebont did not know to resist the competition of the modern iron-foundries of Usinor and of Sollac of north and is France.

Until 1968, one will attend with the reconversion of labor and the destruction of the old iron and steel center: 300 of the last 600 workmen of the Forging mills of Hennebont will be directed towards the site of Kerpont, commune of Caudan close to Lorient, of SBFM (Breton Company of mechanical foundry) subsidiary of Renault.

Industrial tools

The various buildings of the site are distributed on a narrow tape of ground of approximately 50 hectares (2,5 kilometers length on 200/300 meters broad), limited on a side by the Blavet and other by a cliff of rocks.

During the first twenty businesss year, the forging mills transfer their production to increase régulièrement :

1861 : 750 tons.
1865 : 1 225 tons; 310 workmen.
1880 : 5 250 tons; 660 workmen
1888: 10 860 tons.

In 1936, full social struggle, the production was of 33 000 tons of sheets and 9 000 tons of tinplate. The forges' employed 3 at that time; 000 workmen.

The end of the Second world war announced the beginning of the decline of the forging mills. Serious problems of modernization arose already. From 1957, they were felt hard and worsened until the closing of the forging mills.

The forging mills of Hennebont consisted of about thirty buildings disseminated on the ground of the forging mills, including five buildings on the island of Locastel.

Life of the blacksmiths

Between 1860 and 1966, five generations of men and women worked there.

The majority of the metallurgists of the forging mills of Hennebont came from the surrounding countryside. However, between 1860 and 1880, the forging mills called upon workmen of the trade, from where the arrival of metallurgists accompanied by their family, come from the Nievre, Saône-et-Loire, the the Loire and Coast-with Armor.

One assisted, initially, with the shock between two civilizations: that of the ground and that of the Industry, that of the French language and the Breton Language.

The daily newspaper

The first generation of these peasants metallurgists arised to the factory vêtue its atours traditional of the daily life: round hats, waistcoats with velvet facings, shoes. They gave up it quickly, because of wear and the stain which this type of industry caused. Only the shoes remained.

It was necessary to await the third, and even the fourth generation of these workmen, to transform the man of the ground into man of factory.

Workmen resulting for the majority from the rural world, they were often victims of industrial accidents, sometimes mortals: burns, cuts, fractures, drownings. At the beginning of the forging mills, the accidents were daily, because the security measures were quasi-non-existent. One counted approximately 500 per annum accident, but between 1912 and 1939, this number could reach the double almost. It is to say that the workmen and their family lived perpetually in fear of the accident, because the mutilation and death belonged to the daily life of the Forgeron S.

These former peasants brought their way of living on the edges of Blavet: the children were educated severely, the women - mothers and wives above all - were firmly attached to the good walk of their hearth. Courage, directions of the effort, were innate qualities in these metallurgists in shoes which maintained their religious practices.

The daily life was hard, without imagination. The basic food of the family was simple, essence being that “the belly is full”: potatos and porks, crepes and pulps of Buckwheat, fish Friday. Here for the ordinary one. The evening, one was satisfied with a soup of vegetables, soaked bread or a large coffee ‚bowl with slices of bread.

The forging mills of Hennebont employed not only men, but also of the women and children as from 12 years. The latter underwent the same work conditions as their fathers that they accompanied (day of more than 8 hours, night-work…). These children thus did not attend the school, rather far away from the factory. Very little could read and write.

The men worked daily between 12 and 16 hours of at a stretch.

Work was painful: one can compare it with work in the coal mine of the north of France. It is question of heat, infernal rates, gas; many workmen would die of Tuberculose. Those which worked with the Laminoir S had of them memories of convicts.

The need for drinking, in particular cider, to support the heat of the furnaces supported the Alcoolisme.

1925 had to be awaited so that the workmen of the forging mills profit from the eight hours day (law voted in 1919). Work was rate/rhythm by the sound of the siren which one heard with 5 kilometers with the round, announcing the shift, work being done in 3x8.

Residences

The technical installations of the forging mills transformed the edges of Blavet completely. But from constructions in social matter came to be added to it. The Masters of the forging mills made build residences for the personnel.

The cities of working houses transfer the day around the enclosure of the factory: The Mountain whose first buildings go back to 1880 approximately, then Langroise , Malachappe , Kerglaw-Lochrist . These villages offered poor possibilities of housing: one or two parts on average where were to live families of more than 8 people.

To this kind of Ghetto of the working cities the habitat of the Masters was opposed: three castles were built, dominating the Blavet. About thirty houses and apartments roomy and comfortable were also built for the executives… Kerglaw, Bunz, Locqueltas, Hennebont, Holy Piaux.

Lastly, of high crested walls of pieces of broken bottle completed to delimit social space: the territory of the workmen and the territory of the Master.

In 1953, the company had for its personnel 287 residences.

Public installations

Common equipment came to reinforce the identity of this community of metal-workers.

In 1920, was built a private clinic-dispensary. It was modernized in 1951 and included/understood a surgical center, 19 beds, a medical-social work department, with a company doctor and a Social worker.
a village hall being able to accommodate 500 people.
the school of the apprentices was carried out in 1940 for the young people who remained three years in formation there. She admitted children from 12 to 16 years; one taught there the draftsmanship, mathematics, French, the industrial legislation and of course different the trade S from the Fer. This school was very appraisal by the working-class families, but well few of their children had access there.
the children had at their disposal a park of plays of one hectare in the property of Locqueltas, acquired in 1949 by the company.

Today

the museum of the Metallurgists of the forging mills of Hennebont is installed in the old laboratory of the physical and chemical Essais on metal : 18 rooms out of three levels accommodate the public: history, technology of metal, Ethnology, audio-visual animation.
the house of Water : old house of the guard of the forging mills of Kerglaw, to 300 meters of the Museum of the metallurgists, presents a study of the river environment: a room of the aquariums, six showrooms on the infrastructure, data geographical and historical of the channel of the Blavet, its Shipping and memory of the Boatman S.

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