Rouens. The not so stupid question: was there a pond in the Grand Mare district?
By Valentin Lebosse
Published on
Its towers and its bars, enveloped in a wooded belt, dominating a plateau to the northeast of Rouen (Seine Maritime). Population of about 5,000 inhabitants, the district of the Grand Mare comes from the great urbanization projects of the 1960s. More where does its name come from? Was there a front pond? It’s our not so dumb question from Sunday, October 30, 2022.
An old name
“This term, La Grand Mare, has existed for a very long time in the history of Rouen and the surrounding area”, write Huguette Bordessoule, Françoise Mouton and Jean-François Rapaille in their book La Grand Mare, history of our district.
In fact, in his History of Rouen (1980), Michel Mollat notes that in 1455, a wealthy heiress donates to the abbey of Chartreuse de la Rose – its remains are visible on rue de la Petite-Chartreuse, near the Lidl on the road to Darnétal – around a hundred hectares of woods around “a piece of pasture land called La Grant Mare containing 20 acres [environ 10 hectares, NDLR] “.
A mare ? What mare?
Why were these lands so called? “We can imagine that there was a large pond on the plateau – I don’t see any other possible explanation – but it is not certain that it is at the current location of the district”, advances Pierre- Yves Rolland. The municipal councilor delegated to the eastern sector of Rouen “assumes” that this pond was located “at the Chatelet, where there is the water tower”.
For the historian Jacques Tanguy, the Grand Mare would rather refer to the pond of an old farm which itself bore this name. Attested as early as 1716, the Grand Mare Farm still appears in 1894 on the plan below. This map actually shows a stretch of water (in blue) in the middle of the buildings.
After having been sold as national property to a private individual during the French Revolution, the estate welcomes, at the end of the 19the century, a farm-school dedicated to the rehabilitation of young girls leaving prison. They were represented by Sister Marie-Ernestine (1819-1910) which gave its name to a street in the Saint-Hilaire district. At that time, the Grand Mare was also a popular place for walks by Rouennais.
One farm, two neighborhoods
After the death of the nun, several owners succeeded one another at the Grand Mare. Until its sale in 1960 to the SARR (Rouen region development company) to make it a ZUP (area to be urbanized as a priority). The northern part of the farm will become the Lombardy district and the southern part, the Grand Mare as we know it today.
Note that the City was moved into the farmhouse on François-Salomon summer camp, since renamed Le Pré Vert leisure centre. Like a nod to the country past of the place.
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