Port, roads, post buses, trams and coaches have successively connected Vierville to neighboring localities. Documents, old schedules and photographs allow you to follow this story.
Communictions and public transport:
1 - The port built in the 16th century and abandoned in the 17th century.
3 - The "carries", before the Revolution,
4 - Postal relays, 19th century
5 - The tram or "little train" of the Chemins de Fer du Calvados, 1900-1930
6 - The buses of the "SATOS" 1930-1945,
7 - The buses of the "Norman Couriers" 1945-1990(?)
8 - Les "Green Buses" since 1990(?)
The Royal Almanach of 1716 shows that, at that time, a "car" regularly provided the road between Paris and Cherbourg, via Bayeux, Isigny, etc., departing every Monday, from rue St-Denis, to the Grand Cerf. It probably took several days to make the journey, on a rather uncomfortable road.
Excerpt from the Royal Almanac of 1716
These "post" cars gave way to the steam railway from Paris (St-Lazare) to Cherbourg, started under the Second Empire, a normal-gauge railway (1m44) that still exists even if it is now electrified. The complete line from Paris to Cherbourg was inaugurated in 1878, the journey then lasted 17 hours.
It was then completed by a whole network of "small trains" or "narrow-gauge trams" (0m60 - Decauville) which operated with Decauville steam engines (the CFC, Chemins de Fer du Calvados).
In 1900, Vierville was served by a first line from Saint-Laurent to Grandcamp and Isigny (see schedules below).
Isigny was, for its part, since 1886, connected by a branch (normal track? Or metric?) In Lison on the main line Paris-Lison-Carentan.
The St-Laurent-Isigny schedules via Grandcamp, in January 1900, which shows that, on that date, the St-Laurent route to Molay-Littry via Trévières was not yet in service.
The Isigny-St-Laurent journey lasted 1h 25
(Excerpt from the Bessin Renaissance)
The lines of the Calvados Railways (Joanne guide 1910)
In 1901, Le Molay-Littry (with connection on the main line from Paris to Cherbourg) was connected to St-Laurent, which allowed the tram to go directly from Molay to Vierville, then to Grandcamp, via Trévières, Formigny, St-Laurent.
In the other direction, the 60 track was extended to Balleroy. The line was therefore Balleroy-Isigny, via Le Molay-Littry, Trévières, St-Laurent, Vierville, Grandcamp
A station of the Chemins de Fer du Calvados was built (each municipality crossed had the same model of station, in brick, a roof with 4 slopes and an awning). The rails were placed directly on the road, the tram drove slowly and shared the space with the cars and carts.
In the coasts (that of Trévières in particular) it was not uncommon for passengers to get off to relieve the steam engine. And in the curves that were too tight, it happened that the locomotive or a wagon came off the rails. In this case, the passengers got off while the driver used an iron bar to rip the derailed machines and put everything back in order. The trains crossed each other in the stations.
In 1928, the line was closed, which became obsolete with the development of road traffic. The rails were removed around 1933, the sleepers sold locally, and the stations were sold to serve as houses. That of Vierville hosted the cantonnier Louis Coliboeuf and his wife Jeanne with his children for a few years, but it was set on fire on the evening of June 7 during the bombing of Vierville by the Germans.
Many of these stations remain today, including Saint-Laurent, Englesqueville. ¨On the other hand, Louvières (in Gruchy), St Pierre du Mont, Cricqueville seem to have disappeared.
A Grandcamp bus service, Vierville, Port, Bayeux, replaced the tram: the autos SATOS before the war, then The Courriers Normands, then the Green Buses of the General Council of Calvados, name used in the documents of the fund)
The bus that left Bayeux was daily, but it had become weekly in 1944, due to fuel and traffic restrictions.
A ticket from the LCN Bayeux Grandcamp line, valid from Bayeux to Vierville, on July 7, 1940, 41 or 42
The station at the time of the little train
between 1900 and 1930
The street of the station
1939, in the background, the station seen from the Bricsart field. At the time, it had been sold to the municipality that housed the country guard, (public screamer and bell ringer)
