In the 16th century, there was a port in Vierville
The old port
In the Middle Ages and until the 19th century, in the absence of suitable carriage communication routes, cabotage on the coasts was very developed. The sea or inland waterway was the most economical way to transport food or materials.
It is therefore not surprising to find along the coasts traces of archports, which were called "ports", whenever the topography allowed it. In Vierville, the beach and the tide allowed the ships to ground. The ships, small in size, were tanned on the strike with cabestans (vertical axis winches), as in Port-en-Bessin before the digging of the port.
As traffic increased, local sailors had to try to facilitate maneuvers by ding a port in a shore made of dunes covering peat. A basin thus made it possible to accommodate ships on the high sea. They failed at low sea and could leave at the next high tide. These facilities had the disadvantage of being easily sanded and required permanent maintenance. We find traces of it today, in the field and in the ancient texts of the 16th century
The remains of the ancient haven of ViervilleRead the rewritten text
This reading version has been rewritten from the newspaper clipping. Connecting phrases and any reconstructed words are not a verbatim quotation.
A cutout of La Renaissance du Bessin, hand-annotated "19/8/2005", invites you to discover the old port of Vierville, less famous than the beach and the artificial port of 1944. Its title places this haven about four hundred years ago. The newspaper recalls that a haven is a small natural or artificial port, hosting boats, passengers and goods.
The walk is short, because the remains are modest and easy to miss. From Cauvigny Boulevard, the stones visible on the beach are presented as a piece of the west pier. A corresponding pier would have been about ten meters further east, to the right while looking at the sea. Between the two, a pass would have given access to a stranding basin of about 1,500 square meters, according to the reconstruction mentioned in the article.
The newspaper places Vierville in a tight network of small havens, including those of the Dune in Géfosse, Cricqueville and Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes. They facilitated cabotage and access to the hinterland. Despite the wars, old ties existed with England. Manufactured products and other goods were shipped or landed to be distributed in the rich neighboring strongholds, including Trévières and Colombières.
The evocation then revives the English pilgrims climbing the valley from the beach to take the road to Santiago de Compostela. Their first stages were to lead them to Cerisy, with stops in welcoming houses marked by discreet signs. A photograph shows a scallop shell on a Vierville mansion, interpreted as one of these landmarks. Sailors, workers and watchmen complete this imaginary picture of activities regulated by the tides.
The cut leaves an open question: did the siltation cause the disappearance of the port's activities, or did their stop favor its silting? Finally, it refers to the historical site vierville.free.fr to continue the discovery.
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Original OCR text
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The local press also devoted an article to this port (La Renaissance, August 19, 2005)
Mr. Campserveux, Vierville geometrist, drew in 1937 a plan of the remains of the port of Vierville. These remains are only visible occasionally, when the beach is low in sand. On his plan (above) we reported in red what was visible in 1988.
A kind of basin was then distinguished between walls of disparate docks (probably built at various times), lines of wooden piles, and clusters of large pebbles.
According to appearances, the port had two jetts supported on structures that framed a small asymmetrical basin forming at the rear a hold for the drying of the boats.
Une chronicle of the time tells that the port was defended by a big cannon.
A document from 1675 indicates that ships of 80 to 100 barrels (about 2.83 m3 per barrel probably) could enter, that the port had been abandoned 50 years earlier by silting and that the salting of butter had since been loading in Isigny, despite the greater distance from the Seine estuary that had to be tried to reach in a tide. This river was to be used to supply Paris.
The Memorial Registers of the Chamber of Auditors of Normandy in 1599 bear the trace of "Letters patent obtained by Me Pierre Lescaley, lieutenant of the Admiralty, for the ports and ports (ports of stranding) of Grandcamp, Vierville, Isigny and others by dependent... ". These were administrative functions, let's say the "Maritime Affairs" of the time.
The rregisters of the parish of Vierville begin towards the end of the 17th century and they note the existence of sailors, a rope and a wear in the village.
The down is
The angle of the North and East docks is visible
The corner of the North and East docks, seen from the East
The peat, in which the basin was dug, is still visible when the sand is sometimes swept away by NE storms. We can then notice rectangular excavations, a trace of its recent manual operation (and even in the middle of the 20th century). It served as fuel for the peasants, it was enough to dry it for a long time near the fire so that it could burn in turn. (photo J.Dumesnil)
(details) Overview of the remains of the port, in front of Mount Olive. This stone field is called "the Beacon"
The West Quay
The West quay, in the middle, before the rounding, and lined with wooden piles, preserved despite the age. The pool is to the right of the dock.
The North Quay
The North quay, seen from the East. On the right the peat, on the left the filling of pebbles along the edge of the down very right
We distinguish the edge of the North quay, made of well-aligned and level cut stones.
On the left side is the inside of the pool, filled with pebbles and sand.
On the right side is the 70 cm thick of the dock, made of rubble, and then the natural peat in which the basin had been dug.
In the foreground, we can see the East quay, at an angle with the North quai. (photo Jean Dumesnil)
The old poles lined up
The bulletin des Antiquaires de Normandie received in 1928 a communication from Dr. Létienne (full transcription) on the former port of Vierville:
"... Claiming that Vierville had a small port seems difficult. To see its plain beach of fine and golden sand unfold as far as the eye can see between the steep tip of the Percée and the cliffs of Colleville and Sainte-Honorine, it seems difficult to convince the visitor that a port once existed at some point during this strike. Nevertheless, it is possible to find vestiges of ancient substructions. Moreover, there is other evidence of the veracity of the tradition.
"The municipality of Vierville-sur-Mer is connected to that of Saint-Laurent by a beautiful almost straight road, about 2 kilometers long. This road was established in 1900 on the sea line at the urgent instigation of a former mayor, Mr. Etienne de Cauvigny.
"Or about 200 meters from the point where the said boulevard de Cauvigny begins, we see on the sand a vast area of scattered stones, half sanded. These stones, among which are retained the rolled pebbles, contrast by their fixity and their large dimensions with the materials moved by the sea. The fineness of their grain, their hardness, their density give them the characteristics of sandstone rather than the appearance of limestones from the neighboring cliff.
"In addition, these blocks, although their edges have been made foamy by the prolonged action of the waves, retain a regular shape that testifies to the quartering they have undergone. These are not rough stones like those of cliff scree: they are undoubtedly construction materials once brought from elsewhere. The most regular blocks have fairly constant dimensions: they measure 0 m. 65 in length, on 0 m. 55 in width and 0 m. 35 in height, the latter being the most fixed.
"As we go through this field of stones which in the country is called the Beacon, we soon distinguish at certain points alignments that seem intentional, and, flush with the sand, the trace of the well-braced substructions whose arrangement can be followed. He therefore comes to the idea that this stone dispersion comes from the destruction of an important masonry work."
"The area occupied by these materials is located in front of a land belonging to Mr. de Mons, mayor of Vierville and corresponding to the cliff lots No. 515 and 516 of the division of communal property made in 1846 between the inhabitants.
"This surface extends to the contiguous property, called Mont-Olive. In this place called the Pont-d'Ost before the establishment of the road, the strike was cut off by a kind of small lagoon where the passable path stopped.
"The stony space starts from a base that runs along the boulevard over a length of 80 steps. From the bank of pebbles of about ten meters that separates it from the roadway, it advances on the sand perpendicularly towards the sea that covers it at each tide. Of a rather irregular shape, it ends with two tips whose end is 130 meters away from the pebbles. These two tips, about the same length, are separated from each other by a sandy handle. They form a double promontory whose 2 horns do not have the same layout. The West horn after having narrowed spreads, then lengthens without the continuity of the stone field being interrupted, while that of the East narrows, then disappears to reappear only further. In the West it is a peninsula attached to the base by an isthmus; in the east it is an island separated from the base by a sand tongue.
"We therefore confusedly have on the strike the design of two jets limiting a channel with this particularity that the ends of the piers seem to have carried a construction of a certain importance and formed a more powerful massif judging by the mass of the materials scattered on their presumed location. "
"The hypothesis of a channel between two jetters is easily corroborated" because - says Dr. Létienne, - to the right of the cabin raised on the land of Mr. de Mons, we can see, a few steps from the pebble bench, a row of machined stones, punctuated by erected and isolated blocks. This substruction describes a curve that can be compared to an ellipse segment open to the South-Southeast. It has a length of 18 meters and continues with a similar row of well-crafted stones as they are on a dorm. But this second row describes a curve of the opposite direction of the previous one towards the North-Northwest. It is much shorter, measures only 2 m. 50 and makes a kind of foam beak. It serves as a connection between the first and third row that follows a straight direction, almost perpendicular to the coast over a length of 21 meters. The latter bends slightly to the West, as would the pier of a flared channel towards the exit. Then we lose track of this substruction, the blocks being covered with varechs and marine vegetation...
"Along this pill appear, fairly regularly spaced from each other, woods that all end in a tip moss, made such by the friction of pebbles and waves. They exceed the sand level by 25 to 30 centimeters. They have the diameter of a telegraph pole. The wood is black or rather of that very dark brown hue that the woods in the process of carbonization present. Inlung along the walls of the pier, they probably served as a protective siding during the docking of boats.
"In the East, the obvious traces of substruction are less considerable and affect another disposition. They can only be seen at some distance from the pebble bank, at the height of the foam beak, starting point of the West pier and distant from this beak of about 22 meters. At this point begin, at ground level, the foundations of an 85-centimeter thick wall whose equipment has retained a very high sharpness. This wall goes perpendicularly to the coast over a length of 6 meters, then makes a right angle and follows a rectilinear direction over a length of 10 meters. He then joined a substruction that would be the eastern pile of the hâvre. This one quickly becomes indistinct. It is like the West pier, slightly inflected so that the two piers instead of affecting a perfect parallelism are divergent to widen the channel at the exit. A little further and even in the sandy language that divides the eastern promontory of the stone field into two parts, we find some woods aligned with the same appearance as those that border the West pier.
"The width of the channel, thus delimited by the substructions of stones to the West, by the pier and the stilts to the East, counts as we move away from the coast 10, 12 and 15 meters.
"It is therefore clear that all these remains mark the location of the port or small port that once existed in Vierville. In all likelihood it consisted of two jetties supported on structures that framed a small asymmetrical basin forming at the rear a hold for the drying of the boats.
(In fact, it could be that these somewhat disparate remains correspond to various stages of construction and reconstructions that may have spread throughout the 16th century)
"In addition, we notice on the beach, at 500 (in fact at 200m) meters from the ends of the port, a little more advanced in the sea and isolated, two islands of stones scattered without trace of regular equipment. One to the East constitutes a small natural moulder only discovered on the low seas; the other, to the West, is a little closer to the coast. It is presumed that they represent the remains of two beacons locating the entrance to the port and the proximity of the strike. "
Dr. Létienne's statement regarding the existence of a port in Vierville is also based on two documents he discovered.
One is in the Memorial Registers of the Chamber of Auditors of Normandy in 1599 - "Letters patent obtained by Me Pierre Lescaley, lieutenant of the Admiralty, for the ports and ports of Grandcamp, Vierville, Isigny and dependent others... ".
The other is the map of Jean Petite, learned canon and Grand Vicar of Bayeux; this card dedicated to Mgr de Nesmond and engraved in 1675 in Paris, bears this: "Vierville, old port"
See also this curious handwritten map, very detailed, which mentions the abandoned port and gives maritime indications on the Raz de la Percée and the sandbanks
(details) handwritten map of Mariette, late 17th century
Port uses
1/ Extract from the National Archives - Paris
Description of the Normandy Coasts and Ports from Honfleur to Cap Fréhel
3jj113 - carton 16 - Saint Columbus 1675 to Louis XIV:
"There would be 2 leagues from Port en Bessin near Vierville a small haven where buildings of eighty to one hundred barrels entered which has been lost for 50 years. Butter salting is now being done in Isigny but the buildings were better placed to get to a tide on the Seine River. We neglected the maintenance of this small port whose mouth has been sanded and it would not be difficult to lavrestabilr if the thing was of consequence."
1675 Saint Columbus
For the record, the gauge barrel is a unit of ship volume and is worth 2.83 m3
2 / At the Abbey of Cerisy it is indicated that Vierville would have been the port through which English pilmers used to pass, in the direction of Cerisy, then Mont Saint-Michel, and finally Compostela. The supposed route is indicated on the attached map.
It therefore results from the comparison of these documents thatin 1599 the port of Vierville still existed and that it no longer existed for a number of years before 1675. As for the reasons for his disappearance, they can be understood.
The site shows that when the basin was dug into the peat of the shore, the open sea level was certainly lower than currently, about 2 meters probably.
The maximum tide level would therefore have risen for 4 centuries, with an average speed of 50 cm per century, which is not extraordinary. We know that the sea level was 12,000 years ago, at the end of the ice age, about 40 m lower than today. The English Channel and the North Sea were then plains that were gradually covered by the sea. The Strait of Pas-de-Calais was only opened 6 or 7000 years ago.
It was probably not this ascent of the sea that made the port abandon, it was too slow to be perceived. But it's rather the cost of maintenance. The port had to be constantly invaded by sand and pebbles that had to be removed without mechanical means. After a while and perhaps at the end of the 16th century, we had to give it up. Then the sea rose, covering an abandoned port, filled with sand and pebbles, as we see it today.
About the disappearance of the port, here is what a work from 1 century ago says, some inexplict and unconvincing indications:
"The Monumental Normandy" attributes the ruin of the port of Vierville to the withdrawal of the sea. In the past, it would have come to beat the foot of the cliffs and "would have left behind quite important lakes converted today into pastures". This phenomenon could only happen in geological times beyond our reach. It is the opposite that seems to have happened, the sea having continued since historical times to slowly erode the coast as can be seen by the woody peat deposits that border the coast. They surface along the strike, form these black benches where we easily find tree trunks and roots that are still recognizable, whose plant histology would easily determine the essences. They seem to be the remains of an ancient submerged forest that the legend knows as the Quintefeuille Forest. It is to a double process of erosion and destation that we are witnessing much more than the withdrawal of the sea. If to these natural actions we add the new economic conditions created by the progressive development of the ports of Grandcamp and especially of Port-en-Bessin, the considerable costs that would have required the rehabilitation and maintenance of the port of Vierville, we will undoubtedly have a set of causes very sufficient to explain the disappearance in the 17th century of the port or small port of Vierville-sur-Mer"
The creators of the port of Vierville.
The basic text is an avess of the Vierville-Fontenay fief of June 19, 1604 provides historical elements on the builders of this port.
According to this document, Jehan du Mesnil, squire and lord of the said fief, declares to have "right of varech and engraving in the strike of the sea and har that Robert and Guillaume du Mesnil, squires, my ancestor and father, had built and vuider, make docks and cabestan on the said engraving and plague of the sea in lad, parish of Vierville. " (the cabestan is a vertical winch around which a cable is wrapped that is used to brown a boat)
We can find the genealogy of the Mesnil family:
Jean 1er du Mesnil was recognized noble by Montfault in 1464.
His son was Guillaume du Mesnil, probably the first to have a port dug around 1500, when he was about 50 years old.
Tristan du Mesnil, son of Guillaume, married to Catherine de Bailleul.
(At that time it was probably his brother-in-law, Pierre de Bailleul, who had bought from the Vierville family his domain of the old castle of Vierville)
Robert du Mesnil, son of Tristan and Catherine.
Jehan du Mesnil, son of Robert, who still had the rights mentioned in 1604 on the hare of Vierville.
The du Mesnil had in Vierville the fiefs, called of Laubert and Courcy, and in Louvières that of Fontenay; they had as heirs the Léonard, first sieurs de Beaupré, then sieurs des Isles (a domain of Vierville, located south of the church):
"On July 11, 1695, Charles du Mesnil married his daughter Madelaine to Olivier Léonard, Sieur de Beaupré, grandson of Jacques Léonard, ennobled by Henry III in 1582. From this union twelve children were born in Vierville, the second, Michel-Olivier, Sieur des Isles, captain coast guard, married Marie Le Roux, daughter of sieur de Langrie and Marie de Marguerie. Michel-Olivier Léonard had seven children, two of whom were captains, the second married, on October 29, 1782, Catherine d'Escageul, in Crouay, from a family from La Ramée, in Trévières; they had two daughters and a son, Gustave-Alexandre, who married his daughter, Marie-Catherine, to the Count of Gautret, who lived in Longraye. He had three daughters, including a married Mr. de Liénard and a son René de Gautret..."
They lived in a mansion of this name that existed before the Ygouf family built the Château des Isles at the end of the 19th century (this castle was destroyed in 1944 and has not been rebuilt).
Other photos of the remains of the port
These photos were very often taken by Mr. Jean Dumesnil, who lived in Vierville sur Mer in the 1990s
The West quay, its southwest end is in the foreground, we distigue its rounding to the north
The rounding of the West quay,
Seen from the Northeast
A day where the sand partially invaded the port
Below, the North docon
The North Quay
The North Quay, seen from the West
The North quay covered with moss, after a few weeks uncovered, the moss disappears as soon as the stones are under sand.
The North Quay
below the East docon
