Pont-Farcy, Calvados, France

A small town by a bridge in Normandy

By Christopher Long

Pont-Farcy's origins

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ont-Farcy came into existence because long ago it stood on the site of one of the most important crossing places on the river Vire. A stone bridge built by the Farcy family in the early C13th gave the town its modern name, but there may well have been an important bridge or ford long before this.

In mediaeval times the river Vire was the only major obstacle for people travelling along the ancient ridgeway roads linking great cities like Caen and Bayeux with the Breton frontier near Avranches and Mont Saint-Michel.

For about 15 kilometres the river Vire cuts its way through a hillside of ancient Cambrian rock, forming a series of dramatic and almost inaccessible gorges.

Then, at Pont-Farcy, the terrain at last offers an accessible and solid footing on both banks – the perfect setting for a bridge and a firm foundation for the small, compact bourg which sits on a rocky outcrop.

At its lowest point, beside the old canal port, the commune is only 39 metres above sea level, but to the west it soars to 253 metres with 20 kilometre views in all directions over the delightful hills, wooded valleys and streams of the bocage virois.

For centuries, Pont-Farcy's crossing point provided travellers with a safe place to rest or spend the night. Then, in the 1960s, a new bridge and a by-pass were built, leading to the closure of most of the town's shops and businesses. By 2001, a motorway and yet another new bridge meant that passing trade disappeared completely.

Dominique Doublet has published remarkable research now lodged with the Archives Départementales in St Lô revealing that, before the Farcy family gave their name to their bridge, there was a church and parish here called St Jean de Mesnil-Guérin which bordered a neighbouring parish named Ste Marie de Mesnil-Guérin – today, Ste Marie-Outre-L'Eau. The Farcy (Farsi) owned the land possibly as early as the C11th.

Right: Detail from the Mariette de la Pagerie map published very early in the C18th.

The town did not acquire its present name until the C13th when the seigneur of that time, a member of the Farcy family, built a stone bridge, charged a toll to those who used it and gave their name to the parish in which it stood. The bridge is likely to have replaced a ford with some form of 'clapper' bridge or stepping-stones for pedestrians. The lords of Mesnil-Guérin had received or obtained by marriage (ca. 1140) part of the neighbouring Soligny barony of Guilberville (including Sédouy, Chapelle-Heuzebroc, part of Beuvrigny and St Louet-sur-Vire, etc). It is interesting that 'Guérin' appears in connection with the manors at Le Mesnil-Ceron and at Le Chêne Guérin and the 'carrefour Guérin' (Pont-Farcy).

According to Anglo-French sources, including mediaeval documents in the Tower of London – (see Stapleton and Doublet) – the Mesnil-Guérin family followed William the Conqueror to England where their name was transformed into the well-known English surname 'Mainwaring'. Soon after, in the early C14th, the lordship of the manor of Pont-Farcy passed by marriage from a Farcy to a Carbonnel and then to a succession of others.

Right: Detail from a map based on the Carte de Cassini published in the late C18th.

Among the subsequent lords of the manor were: Richard Carbonnel mentioned 1332, Henri de Carbonnel mentioned 1456 and also seigneur of Brévant and Saint-Denis-le-Gast, a de Formentières mentioned early C16th, Jacques de Pontbellanger mentioned 1574, Gilles de Gouvets mentioned 1599, René de Sainte-Marie who bought the fiefdom of Pont-Farcy in 1647, Anne de Pontbellanger widow of Jacques Maillard, Jacques d'Amphernet, et Jacques du Quesnay mentioned 1758.

Some of these local seigneurs were among the many local protestants who built and funded a reformed church at Chêne Guérin, near Gouvets, the walls of which still stand today. According to D. Doublet, in the C12th, Chêne Guérin was held by the same Guérin family which held Pont-Farcy.

There are about 15 kms of often spectacular gorges between Ste-Marie-Laumont and Pont-Farcy which continue briefly around Les Roches de Ham.

Almost certainly such a seigneurie existed in neighbouring Ste-Marie-Outre-L'Eau, giving rise to the lieu-dit 'La Cour'. In this case, the author suggests, the building probably sat on the raised platform of land due south of the church's south door, south of a gîte, an area now partially covered by modern farm buildings. Elements of the old château's original home farm have survived, along with farm's name, about 100 metres to the west at Le Vieux Chateau or La Cour du Château. Significantly, Pont-Farcy offers no equivalent seigneurial toponyms or lieux-dit.

The author suggests that an original mediaeval main road through Pont-Farcy was the lane known today today as Le Bas du Bourg. This still exists, little changed by the centuries, running from Pont-Farcy's bridge, through what is now the bakery and continues parallel with the Archette stream, as far as the Moulin Sous Le Bourg where it turns north, across the present-day high-street to become the Route de Montabot – the start of one of several ancient ridgeway roads in the vicinity. Another lane may have run from the Moulin Sous Le Bourg, beside the mill leet, as far as Le Vivier where there must once have been pool stocked with fish. In the days before the construction of the C19th main road from Pont-Farcy to Villedieu, this lane may even have continued as far as Le Moulin Hy before continuing parallel with the Archette as far as Le Moulin Hy. Unfortunately the construction of the C19th main road will have covered and destroyed evidence of the line of any older lanes nearby.

Geographically the commune is far smaller (13.45 sq km) than most of its neighbours which may be significant if the history of the former parish is to be understood. Sitting conveniently halfway between Caen and Mont-Saint-Michel, as well as halfway between St Lô and Vire, Pont-Farcy was a commune where passing trade and commerce may have earned more wealth than agriculture.

Pont-Farcy's 'Napoleonic' cadastre was published in 1832. However, soon after, the main road running through Pont-Farcy was upgraded and cut a swathe through the countryside. Someone has pencilled in the new road in the map right, but click on the image to see the original.

The fact that we know so little about Pont-Farcy's history before the C17th suggests that there may not really have been all that much to know until the 'modern' late-C17th or early-C18th road we know today was built. Pont-Farcy's commercial life may have taken off when this new road sliced its way down from St Martin-des-Besaces, crossed Pont-Farcy's stone bridge and created the high street we know today, before disappearing upwards and westwards towards Villedieu, Avranches and Brittany. If this is indeed what happened it helps to explain why parishes such as Saint-Louët, Beuvrigny, Pleines-Oeuvres, St Vigor-des-Monts and Montbray never evolved into commercial towns. They were, quite simply, by-passed by the new straight road which brought prosperity to Pont-Farcy for three centuries until it too was a victim of a new by-pass.

By the mid-19th century the population stood at over 1,000, falling slowly thereafter, partly owing to war casualties and partly to the growth in dairy farming which was less labour intensive than arable farming. But the greatest cause of the reduced population must have been the improved work opportunities in industrial towns like Vire.

For a few years after 1861 Pont-Farcy considered itself an important 'port' town at the head of the newly built Vire Canal, but the town soon discovered that its nearest neighbour, Tessy-sur-Vire, had won the game. The railways arrived soon after the canals, offering ever greater speed, efficiency and value for money. Tessy became a railway town with an important terminus that would eventually kill off the canal and Pont-Farcy's port. But in the 1930s Tessy too became a victim when the flexibility of road transport made the railway redundant. Pont-Farcy could briefly enjoy its position on the main road again.

During the second half of the C20th there was a catastrophic drop in Pont-Farcy's population down to 487 in 1990, largely as a consequence of a new concrete bridge and a by-pass which removed the passing trade and led to the death of most of the town's shops and small businesses. Property prices plummeted and about a quarter of the commune's old rural habitations were vacant, abandoned or in ruins.

In the early years of the C21st numbers began to rise again, helped by a small influx of English settlers, but mostly due to the arrival of young French families, now with easier access to bank loans, building new houses or renovating old ones, within commuting distance of their work in Caen, St Lô or Vire.

Other bridges nearby included those at Vire Étouvy, Campeaux, Pont-Bellhanger, Tessy and St Lô.

The church of St Jean

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e know that around the time of the Norman Conquest there was parish with a church dedicated to St Jean the Baptist de Mesnil-Guérin and that this parish almost certainly became known as Pont-Farcy when new lords of the manor, the Farcy family, built a stone bridge and gave their name to it. These 'lords' – or seigneurs – had the feudal right to appoint their clergy.

The pictures of Pont-Farcy church above and below, taken in 1921 and 2007, show that the clock face was raised at some stage. This presumably coincided with electrification after 1936 when the magnificent 1910 mechanism was made redundant. And since this postcard dates from 1912 there is, of course, no monument aux morts...

The foundations of this mediaeval church must lie beneath the largely late-C17th church we know today. The original church had a typically Norman crossing tower and, according to Arcisse de Caumont, who visited the church before a major re-modelling in the late-C19th, the building had 'gothic' trefoil bays and no windows in its north wall.

Pictured right, in the 'new' porch at the foot of the C17th tower, are some surviving remains of what may have been the 'old' porch leading into the mediaeval church. Today the present porch also displays the magnificent but now redundant church clock which was given to the commune in 1910 by Mlle Joséphine Hurel who had died the year before.

In the 1680s the old tower was demolished and replaced by the present west-end tower. Following the building of the sacristy and widespread re-modelling in the late-C17th, probably the only decorative vestiges of the original building may those visible in the interior wall at the base of the present tower which may be the remains of an original west-door porch see above right.

It's possible too that the honey-coloured 'surface granite' around the south door in the 'new' tower is re-used stone from the mediaeval church.

In the author's opinion, the awkward shape and proportions of the stonework around this 'gothic' doorway may be the consequence of a mason reworking old stone from an original roman arch. If so, this could explain the inconsistent colour of the granite facade which combines honey-coloured 'surface granite' around the doorway, with grey 'Vire' granite, in the coins.

The date above this door, 1745, records a later remodelling of this 'new' facade while a further more comprehensive re-modelling of the walls and windows took place in the late C19th.

• See L'Église de St Jean à Pont-Farcy par Jacky Brionne.

The canal, the port and the railways

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n mediaeval times the river Vire was navigable as far as Saint-Lô and it's likely that small flat-bottomed barges could reach as far as Pont-Farcy when there was enough depth of water.

However, it wasn't until 1861 that a purpose-built canal was open all the way from the sea to Pont-Farcy.

The Vire et Taute section of the canal near Carentan had already opened by 1839 but two years later a scheme to run a canal from the coast to Vire was abandoned.

This was hardly surprising since the course of the river and the gorges would have presented enormous technical and geological challenges.

Instead, in 1845, a plan to link Pont-Farcy with the coast was approved. Nineteen locks were needed and the state poured 2.6 million francs into the project. In 1861 the canal was opened and the barges, towed by horses on the tow-path, began a successful two-way trade on the canalised river.

Vast quantities of sea-sand fertiliser were brought upstream but the most important commodity was agricultural lime, quarried in the limestone hills north of St Lô and processed in lime kilns close to the canal around St Fromand and La Meauffe.

This lime was to transform the lives and landscape of the bocage virois since it allowed farmers to develop the intensive dairy farming industry we known today and which, in the C19th, produced world-renowned dairy products such as Normandy butter and Camembert cheese. The barges did not return empty, however. So-called 'Vire' granite was transported overland to Pont-Farcy and shipped down-stream, along with vast quantities of local schist from Pont-Farcy's own quarries such as the Robbe quarry at La Grippe, to be used for building in rapidly expanding towns such as St Lô which were beginning to benefit from industrialisation.

So, for a short while Pont-Farcy became a busy inland port with merchants supplying lime and sea-sand fertiliser to local farmers who came to collect it in their farm carts while the quarries, such as Robbe's at La Grippe near Pont-Farcy, operated close to the canal so that they could load stone directly into the barges.

But this golden era was brief. Almost as soon as the canals were constructed, the railways arrived to compete with them. At first it was cheaper to send low-value and bulky commodities by horse-drawn barge and the more expensive railways were best value only when speed was important and higher value commodities such as perishable foodstuffs like meat or dairy products were involved. But before long the cost of rail transport for passengers and goods dropped and small canals slowly died. There was still a little traffic on the canal after the First World War, but activity in the port of Pont-Farcy was in steep decline.

• See La Vire Canalisée.

The high street

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hen we look at the bourg today it we see an almost unbroken row of stone built houses down both sides of the street. But in fact the character and history of the two sides are almost certainly very different.

Even a brief glance of the cadastre map shows that most of the houses on the south side are built on almost uniform narrow plots of land stretching from today's high street down to what is called the Bas du Bourg with its mill-race and stream. Here most houses had their own well and latrine which emptied into the stream and all the houses had access either to their own or to a communal lavoir.

The land-distribution on the south side seems to accord with a form of 'town plan', each house having plenty of light, a useful garden in a well-defined rectangular plot, and access to water.

But a more careful study of the cadastre map reveals that at one time all the land along the north side of the street was probably divided among only about about seven plots:

1. The area of land now occupied by Pont-Farcy's school and stretching back at least as far as today's sports field. A surviving building on this site may have C16th or C17th. It is possible that that this plot "A" once formed part of a larger holding that incorporated both "A" + "B". The fact that this plot became 'commune' land probably following the French Revolution may be significant.
2. The area of land now occupied by the Mairie and stretching back at least as far as today's sports field. It is possible that that this plot "A" once formed part of a larger holding that incorporated both "A" + "B". The fact that this plot became 'commune' land probably following the French Revolution may be significant.
3. The area of land which almost certainly once belonged to Le Croissant and stretching back at least as far as today's sports field. See the area marked red in the image above. A narrow track, of probably ancient origin, runs up its eastern side separating it from what appears to be a similar adjacent property see 'D'.
4. An area of land which may once have been occupied by a substantial house perhaps like Le Croissant? which stretched back at least as far as today's sports field and was bounded on its eastern flank by the Route de Montabot.
5. The area of land which may once have formed part of the church's land or which may have been privately owned. It is bounded on its western flank by the Route de Montabot. It is traversed by a small lane leading from the Route de Montabot to the church and if this lane is of ancient origin the designation and boundaries of the land might be easier to understand. Interestingly there is a very narrow passage separating the houses facing east from those facing west. [NB This plot "E" might have formed part of a larger holding incorporating "E" + "F".]
6. The area of land belonging to the Church of St Jean. Before the French Revolution, the church presumably owned the land currently occupied by the church, its churchyard and the Presbytery behind, as well as the entire area occupied by the Bureau des Postes, the council depot, the Salle des Fêtes, etc. It is significant that no shops or commercial premises appear to have existed along this stretch of the high street until after 1789 at least. The church's land holdings may also have included the parcel described at "E" above and also further land around or beyond the Presbytery as far as the quarry more research needed.
7. The area of land, largely intact, which remains in private hands and is occupied by one of the grander houses of Pont-Farcy. The Route des Carrières along its eastern flank is surely of ancient origin and once led not only to the quarries but to the Moulin-sous-le-Bosq. The northern boundary may once have extended as far as the quarry since the lane linking the Route de Tessy with the church is of recent origin.
8. The farm...

Although small houses now line the north side of the road, it's clear that they are huddled together in a narrow strip along the road and there's little evidence of 'planning'. In all probability these houses were built on...

In fact

Mills

• Sous Le Bosq, Sous Le Bourg, Le Moulin Hy

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e

Le Croissant

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o detailed analysis of Pont-Farcy's older houses has yet been carried out but probably the oldest so far identified in the bourg is Le Croissant.

Many surviving elements of this house are typical of local manor houses of the C16th of which this is an impressive example.

About half of the original hall survives, dominated by a massive fireplace in the north gable with a huge, standard-issue granite mantel supported on four corbels – the mantle having been moved backwards long ago. Decoration of the granite pillars includes scallop shells, crosses and so-called pilgrim's sticks. Overhead a truly massive oak beam remains in situ though it seems likely that there was once a second such beam which did not survive the modifications necessary to turn part of the hall into a shop see below.

The historian David Nicolas-Méry suggests that the name Le Croissant might well refer to the symbol on a sign that once hung at that site. He adds, however, that the croissant was the emblem chosen by Henri ll of France to symbolise catholicism and it could be that the owners of this house in the late C16th were making a bold statement of their beliefs by associating their house with catholicism in a largely protestant area around the time of the Wars of Religion.

An almost intact stairway tower survives in the east wall, rising two storeys high but with evidence that the stairway once rose to the level of a third floor.

The original front door, now gone, was almost certainly in the western lateral wall, probably giving onto a courtyard whose shape is still still discernible from the cadastre plan.

In the corresponding western wall, beside the stairway tower, is a superb mullioned window with renaissance decoration and original iron grill, surrounded by other embrasures, one of which is still fitted with its original grill.

Indoors, round-arched interior doorways suggest that the original house extended to the north, probably with a service room or store-room at ground level and a seigneurial room or rooms on the first floor. The original front door may have had a similar round arch. The paving flags shown in a sketch of the room by Arcisse de Caumont in 1857 are no longer visible but may perhaps survive beneath the modern floor.

In addition to the mullion window, an external stairway tower survives at Le Croissant. Like several other similar towers e.g. L'Aumoire at Morigny and La Ricouvière at St Vigor-des-Monts the tower would have risen three storeys high although the house is thought to have had only two habitable floors. We still do not know why this was so although in some cases there is evidence that the tower incorporated a sort of 'chimney' that allowed soil from a latrine at the top to fall to a collection point within the foot of the tower.

Sadly, the external form of the southern half of the hall is now obscured by two newer buildings which abut the southern ends of the east and west lateral walls, both newer buildings facing the high street.

The new building on the western side may have led to the loss of the manor house's original front door and probably its main west windows – both of which were probably impressive judging by the quality of the surviving mullion window in the back wall. But despite the new structures the original shape and volume of the hall survives even though it's floor level and roof height have been dramatically altered in the southern half.

This southern end of the original hall is now at street level, about a metre lower than the intact remains of the old hall. The lower area was almost certainly created to serve as a shop in the C18th or early C19th and, although the house has now been converted back to domestic use, the impressive shop-front 'counters' looking like extra-wide window-sills are still visible today. It may be that a second massive beam was removed from the hall in order to make this conversion.

This change of use and of floor level demonstrates the growing importance of Pont-Farcy as a commercial centre and is particularly significant since it parallels the rise and fall of the town's commercial history as a whole. At some stage a once-grand manor house was transformed into commercial premises but became a house again when town's commercial life died in the 1970s. The front door – which once faced west over its own land – was turned to face a busy and noisy commercial high street, though today it is scarcely used at all!

The high street we know today was probably created from a narrower existing lane. It obviously involved substantial deepening in order to produce a suitable gradient for carts and would have required widening in order to produce enough space for shop fronts, pedestrians and market stalls. In any case, the effect of creating the new road can be seen in several old houses on the north side of the road: either you have to climb steps to reach their front doors or, as at Le Croissant, a whole front room had to be lowered to street level.

A Mystery at La Hatuyère...

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t about the highest point in Pont-Farcy – a spot overlooking the entire valley of the Vire from Tessy to Ste Marie-Outre-L'Eau, with views almost as far as St Lô and Vire – there exists a mystery feature. Now you see it... now you don't...

On the 1832 Napoleonic cadastre there is a curious, oval-shaped road at this dominant position known as La Hatuyère. Today there is no sign of what this feature might once have been, but by super-imposing the 1832 hand-drawn map onto a Google Earth satellite image one can clearly see the existance of an oval-shaped road or path.

It is remarkable enough that the early C19th hand-drawn map so closely resembles today's aerial view using C21st technology, but the fascinating question remains that nowhere else nearby does such a precisely oval-shaped feature appear. It must have served a man-made purpose in itself and its form must surely be the consequence of a man-made structure that no longer exists but which once stood either within or around the oval road.

In 2014 Christopher Long suggested that La Hatuyère is probably a corruption of La Haute Tuyère. A tuyere (in both French and English) is the funnel-shaped structure that directs wind into a furnace. In the late Middle Ages the air delivered to a bloomery furnace through a tuyere was often pumped under pressure by bellows.

We are most grateful to industrial archaeologist Robert Waterhouse who has described a system – often found on exposed hill-tops – which involves two narrowing wattle-and-daub walls which capture and funnel natural wind into the furnace. La Hatuyère is notable for being at a dominant high point, exposed to winds from all directions.

The question remains: what purpose would a 'bloomery' or 'blast' furnace have served at La Hatuyère?

The Mariette de la Pagerie map for this area (based on surveys 1690-1720) marks La Hatuyère (Pont-Farcy) as a source of tin [alchemical symbol 24]. Christopher Long, meanwhile, has presented a prima facie case for an artisan iron industry in a small valley about 500-900 metres away, across the river Vire, in Pleines-Oeuvres.

Local footpaths and ancient roads
This subject will be treated in a separate and detailed study which will be published in due course!

Pour savoir ce qu'il en est des chemins communaux inscrits dans le PDIPR.

See images of Pont-Farcy's paved Roman road which is currently used as a refuse tip and is closed to public access (illegally?) by a padlocked gate.

On the face of it, there is nothing that would preclude the possibility that this is a Roman road. It could be later, but looking at the Cassini map, the topography suggests that the road's location has been the logical place for a human trackway for as long as human communities have inhabited this area. The connection with Pont Farcy, which could have originated as a vicus/statio/mansio at the junction of a Roman road and river crossing, only adds to the possibility that we may be looking at a Roman road. And even if the paving that is now visible is more recent, that too would do nothing to eliminate the possibility that it was preceded by a Roman roadway. Perhaps the only way to resolve the question would be to do some archival work on Pont Farcy in the Middle Ages and early Modern period to see if the road is any way associated with the king, dukes of Normandy, or other local authorities. Bruce Hitchner: historian and archaeologist, Professor of Classics & International Relations at Tuft University.

Clockmakers

Pont-Farcy was renowned in the C18-19th for its clock-making. But although a number of clocks are specifically stated to have been made there, it is likely that Pont-Farcy was particularly known for the manufacture of clock components – in high-grade, well-crafted iron – which were bought and assembled by clockmakers throughout the region. This would help to explain why almost any 'lantern' clock of this era was commonly and generically known as an horloge de Pont-Farcy.

In ca. 2005, Raymond Manson of St Vigor-les-Monts noted that among the makers known were 'Alexandre à Pontfarcy 1750' and a 'Bunel F.A. Pont-farcy' who, on another clock dated 1750, signed himself 'Bunel A Pont-farcy'. Meanwhile an early C19th clock is signed 'Lemarchand Alexandre Pont-farcy'.

... On retrouve souvent dans l'histoire de la fabrication des premières horloges les mêmes conditions: dans un lieu ou il y a du fer facile à récupérer (zones d'affleurement de minerai) du bois qui est transformé en charbon de bois et une rivière pour fournir la force hydraulique. Les paysans lors de leurs moments perdus les utilisent pour fabriquer des instruments aratoires élémentaires comme les socs de charrue, des outils simples comme les serpettes, des clous pour ferrer les chevaux, puis des armes de chasse, certains en font un métier et fabriquent des serrures, d'autres font des armes à feu et un beau jour on leur demande de faire une horloge. Mais ce n'est pas une industrie on fait une horloge à la demande. Ce n'est que un peu plus tard à Morez et ses alentours et dans le sud de la Foret Noire que petit à petit ces travaux passent du stade artisanal au stade semi-industriel... Richard CHAVIGNY

However, the best study of Pont-Farcy clocks is : L'Horlogerie Vernaculaire Bas-Normande by David Nicolas-Méry (2012). He too believes that Pont-Farcy was a likely source for the components used by many clock-makers in Basse-Normandie.

Résistance

Lieux des évènements du résau 'PTT' Résistance pendant la seconde guerre mondiale – munitions britanniques parachutées par le RAF sur les hauts de Ste-Marie-Outre-L'Eau.

Age of motoring

Nevertheless, during the 1920s and 1930s, Pont-Farcy continued to prosper thanks to the growing popularity of motor cars. Motorists needed its hotels, garages, bars and restaurants as they took the main road from Paris via Caen to Mont-Saint-Michel and Brittany.

World War ll

During World War ll, the bridge at Pont-Farcy was once again strategically vital. By 1940 the Germans occupied all of France and the bridge at Pont-Farcy guaranteed their communications across central Normandy and into Brittany. In 1944 the largest amphibian invasion ever known took place when British, Canadian and American troops landed on beaches in Normandy in order to liberate France and the rest of Europe.

Broadly speaking, the river Vire separated the American forces in the west – liberating the Cotentin peninsula, Avranches, Mortain and Brittany – from British and Canadian forces in the east – liberating the region from Caen to Bény Bocage, including Vire itself.

To prevent the Germans from retreating eastwards across the river Vire, American aircraft spent days trying to bomb the bridge at Pont-Farcy. They failed, though many of the town's houses were destroyed.

Eventually the Germans retreated across Pont-Farcy's bridge and destroyed it themselves with dynamite to cover their retreat.

A few weeks later they were annihilated in a pincer movement involving British and American troops at Falaise.