Paper mills of Holy-Suzanne (Mayenne)

16 mills were exploited on the river the Erve in the suburb of the Holy-Suzanne River with of the end of the 17th century at the beginning of the 19th century.

Various types of mills

The mills were the following:

the mill-with-Viscount, communal mill, or Large-mill (11th century) (flour) functioned 9 centuries (1050 - 1950)
the Pont-Neuf (paper, fuller, flour)
the rock of the Pont-Neuf
the choiseaux superior (barley)
the choiseaux inferior 15th century (corn)
the closeau of the choiseau (disappeared today) (paper)
mechanics or new mill 15th century (paper then flour then sawmill)
the gohard higher (paper)
Castle-strapping man
the mill than hares (tan)
The noës (flour)
bridge-with-piles (disappeared today)
the sauvagère or saugère (paper then flour)
Bouvion or Borough-Guyon
the poupinière (paper then flour)
the patache (paper then flour).

Paper mills of Holy-Suzanne (Mayenne) at the 17th century and 18th century

History

Paper arrives to Persia at the 8th century. One then substitutes for the barks of trees the flax and hemp, innovated in Turkestan in the neighborhoods of the Christian era. Manual scraping is replaced by the action of grinding stones driven by animals or slaves. At the 10th century and 11th century, paper finds in Spain, manufactured with remains of flax and hemp macerated in lime water and crushed in grinding stones .

The Italians, having been informed of the manufactoring process of paper by the means of the Arab conqueror in Sicily, and by the crusades, give him at the 13th century a strong impulse by replacing the grinding stone by a system of levers armed with rammers crushing, and animated by a waterwheel. It is at that time also that one thinks of drying paper with the air, posed on cords. It is about the middle of the 14th century that the French build in their turn of the mills whose equipment consisted of piles of oak, shoed mallets animated by a Camshaft, itself pulled by a wheel. This technique was brought by the Italians. The mill Richard de Bas , with Ambert in Auvergne, date of this time.

In the Maine, in 1289, Guy IX of Laval wife Béatrix de Gâvre, originating in the Flandres, and this alliance is the prelude of a new fortune for the country by the introduction of weaving and industries which depend on it. The Mayenne, as of this time, cultivates flax and Chanvre in significant amount. The use of the body linen, introduced at the 14th century, indirectly supports the industry of the paper, manufactured with rags of worn linen. The scarcity and the cost of the parchment would have slowed down the extension of printing works; on the contrary, the use of paper makes it possible this industry to be spread.

The first mills appear in Maine, probably towards 1419/1420, since it is mentioned whereas the factory of Courgains spent for paper and clerk has fere these have a presentiment of accounts , just as a document of 1424 mentions as the factory of Limekiln bought XVII fueylles paper qio esté myses II sums of money ob. for each one fueylle … Of the mills is mentioned with Soft-the-Jolly or Stops-Huisne in the the Sarthe.

With Holy-Suzanne, the first mill with paper is mentioned as of 1544. At the time, the rise of the Atlantic trade from which several paper centers benefit from the west (area of Morlaix, valley of the Nantes Sèvre, Pays Would plow up, area of Vire and Mortain) is determining in the introduction of this technique to Holy-Suzanne even.

Technique of manufacture

Until the beginning of the 19th century, the sheet of paper is produced starting from waste of the textile, of rags, flags, ropes and of rags of hemp or flax. This re-use gives place to an important traffic ensured by the commercial ragmen or of figures . Also, the paper activity concentrates it in the zones likely to offer satisfactory collections. The Low-Maine, current department of Mayenne, lent itself to it well; it was, until the end of the 18th century, an area of culture of the Lin and textile industry (manufacture, trade). One then exchanged rejects against pins.

Until the 19th century, paper is always manufactured " with the forme". The raw material consists of rags which are sorted and thrown in a tank. The rotting of the rags is facilitated by chopping with the " dérompoir" (blade of forgery), which puts them in charpie. They are then reduced in paste by the mallets of the mill.

The paper pulp put in a tank, a workman ( the opener ) takes it with a kind of sieve: the form . Water drains through the meshs of the form and it obtains an extremely fragile sheet of paper which it reverses on a felt; then it poses a second felt on the sheet. The same operation is repeated until it constitutes a porse (pile of 100 sheets of paper). This porse is put being printed. The sheets are then pasted, pressed again and put to dry on a spreading using the peel .

The paper mill of the suburb of the River , strong under the old mode from five to six units, knows fluctuations which lead it to count nine mills with paper the day before the industrial revolution. At the 18th century, the marked specialities of the suburb are the Carte to play and wraps it, packing paper of poor quality.

Paper cartier known as " with the pot" mainly is marketed and conveyed in the manufacturers of the large cities and, from there, towards the ports: Holy-Suzanne works primarily for Caen, Nantes and Lille.

The Charts to play were manufactured, with paper cartier, with Holy-Suzanne even, for example in a house located at the angle of the main street and street of the cartery . These charts were primarily marketed in Brittany.

" Aimont" , such is the name registered in the paste of a sheet of paper employed by a notary of Bazougers, in 1682, probably coming from the factories from Holy-Suzanne, then in great activity.

In 1771, seven mills with paper function:

the mill-nine (become Mechanics in 1839) = produced 900 oars
the high-Seedbed = 500 oars
the bourguyon and the sauvagère ( saugère ) = 100 oars
the gohard = 600 oars
the Pont-Neuf = 500 to 600 oars
the low-seedbed = 400 oars,

what carries to 3000 oars approximately the production in 1771.

Social movements

At the end of the 18th century, paper industry was blocked by the requirements of the workmen, leagued between them to quarantine the mills where one of them had had some dissatisfaction, and by a rise in the price of the rags coming from their export, in spite of the stop of 1739 which defended to sell them elsewhere than in the spring of each mill for the local factory.

In February 1794, the lack of subsistence forces the paper owners to return their workmen. November 22nd 1794, to support this industry which interested all the area, the paper makers are exempted national guard.

September 27th 1799, Joseph Fouché, Minister for the police force, asks whether there exists in the department a coalition of paper workmen, having statutes, engagements, chiefs, and puts at the index manufactures and their owners.

Decline of the paper activity

The not-modernization of the manufactoring processes involves the disappearance of the paper activity. Fault of having adopted the " crush hollandaise" , sophisticated system of crushing of the rags which opens the way with mechanization, the paper mills of Holy-Suzanne cross the French revolution in a misleading safety which they are not concerned. From 1830, the small mills close the ones after the others. On this date, the new Holy-Apollonie paper mill with Entrammes is equipped with the machine to continuous, turbines and apparatuses with vapor. The raw material change (wood instead of the fabric scrap) will have been fatal with the paper mills suzannaises and the industrial character of this suburb.

The paper mills of Holy-Suzanne definitively close their doors between 1835 and 1840. The last mill with paper ( Bunting , owner) cease to function in 1840.
The census of 1851 is the last to reveal a person of the trade of paper maker to Holy-suzanne. In 1871, the page is definitively turned with the authorization to transform the " mill with papier" Gohard-inferior out of mill with tan.

Paper makers

A family, the PROVOST, particularly made live this industry.

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