Last modified: 2004-10-02 by ivan sache
Keywords: seine-maritime | petit-quevilly | letter: q (blue) |
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The municipality of Petit-Quevilly (22,600 inhabitants) is located south of Rouen, across the river Seine. It is the seventh largest city in the department of Seine-Maritime.
The city was founded in the early ages of the duchy of Normandy but its precise origin remains obscure. The name Quevilly might come from Cavilliacum, the name of a Roman estate, or more probably from queville, the name locally given to a wooden fence used to drive game.The domain of Petit-Quevilly was ceded in 1035 to the abbey of Bec-Hellouin by Herlouin, the founder of the abbey. In 1180, Henry II Plantagenet, king of England and duke of Normandy, founded in the park of Rouvray the "Royal House", a leper-house for young women. The house was closed in 1366 and its only remain is the St. Julian's chapel. In 1207, king of France Philippe-Auguste edicted the chart of the Bruyères-Saint-Julien, which remained effective until the French Revolution. The St. Julian's priory was built around 1600 and administrated by Cartusians.
Petit-Quevilly was granted municipal statutes in 1790, but the
development of the city started only in the XIXth century with the
industrialization of the region. Pierre Malétra, a merchant from Rouen,
built in 1808 the Malétra factory, specialized in industrial equipement.
Malétra's flagship was an oven for burning pyrites, sold all over the
world. Pyrites (from Ancient Greek purithes lithos, fire stone) is a
natural iron sulphur (FeS2). The factory hired 800 workers, including the
Swedish writer August Strindberg (1849-1912), who spent year 1895 in
Petit-Quevilly. The factory was stopped in 1963 and demolished in 1971.
The resulting industrial wasteland was transformed into the new borough
of Nobel-Bozel.
The Buddicom factory was founded in 1841 in Petit-Quevilly. The first
locomotives and wagons used on the railway line Paris-Rouen, inaugurated
in 1843, were built there. The factory also produced sugar mills. The
locomotive factory was moved in 1845 to the neighbouring city of
Sotteville-les-Rouen, which was located closer to the railway. In 1848,
the soap manufacturer Lacour bought the factory and transformed it into
a soap factory which caused a great wrath in Marseilles, the traditional center of soap production in France. In 1875, soap production was
replaced by innovative chemical production of carbon sulphur and rubber,
directed by Herubel. The factory, which onced hired 850 workers, was
closed in 1988.
The cotton mill La Foudre was founded in 1842. Its name came from the
boiler used in the factory, which had been retrieved from the tugboat
La Foudre (The Lightning), sunk in the river Seine. The factory
grounds were built by the English architect Fairbain and certified
fireproof. The factory was increased in 1859 by Pouyer-Quertier, who
hired 700 workers. The factory was closed in the 1930s and taken back by
the Army in 1938. All the remaining buildings have been recently
purchased by the municipality of Petit-Quevilly.
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 7 April 2004
The flag of Petit-Quevilly, as found by Pascal Vagnat on the municipal website, is white with the municipal logotype, mostly based on the Q letter.
Ivan Sache, 7 April 2004