FLINS-NEUVE-EGLISE MUNICIPAL MONOGRAPH

​

​

​

I Geographic part

​

      Location, Bordering municipalities, Extended population in hectares of the territorial area, Altitude, Nature of the soil, Climate, Relief, Hydrography, Communication routes (roads, local roads, railways). Particularity of flora and fauna.    

​

      Flins-Neuve-Eglise is located northwest of the Seine-et-Oise department. The neighboring municipalities are: to the north, Longues, to the east, Dammartin, to the south, Tilly; to the west, Mondreville which separates its territory from the department of Eure-et-Loir.

      Flins-Neuve-Eglise is 13 kilometers from Houdan, its capital of the canton, 16 kilometers from Mantes and 47 kilometers from Versailles.

      The 1896 count gave a population of 117 inhabitants, this year there were 22 assisted children placed in families by the Seine-et-Oise public assistance. This population comprised 35 households and was housed in 30 houses.

      The territory of Flins-Neuve-Eglise has only 123 hectares; its clayey soil produces an abundance of wheat, oats and fodder plants. The average harvest before the use of chemical fertilizers was only 20 hectoliters of wheat per hectare in good years; the harvest of 1899, without being as abundant as that of 1898, will be about 30 hectoliters.

      The use of fertilizers can therefore provide an additional harvest of 10 hectoliters per hectare; if this wheat is sold at an average price of 15f per hectolitre, it is therefore an additional yield of 150f. The farmers count 50f per hectare of additional expense caused by the use of chemical fertilizers added to farmyard manure, these 50 francs therefore give a net profit of 100 francs.

      The farmers of Flins-Neuve-Eglise, like all those in the region, have recognized the need to use chemical fertilizers which allow a lot of harvesting and to be able to sell cheaply without harming the interests of agriculture; they formed a Syndicate headquartered in Mantes; they can thus have their fertilizers in good price and quality conditions.

      Flins-Neuve-Eglise is located 130 meters above sea level; the territory is very little hilly. No stream waters it. A few wells and ponds supply the country. It should be noted that in the southern part, we find water at a depth of 3 to 4 meters, while in the northern part we have to dig up to 20 and even 35 meters deep.

      The years of drought are a plague for the country, the inhabitants are forced to go to Boissels, 3 kilometers away, to draw from the source of the Vaucouleurs the water that will be used for household needs and for feeding livestock. .

      The territory of Flins-Neuve-Eglise is crossed by the main communication path, n ° 115 (1010m) from Longues to Nogent-le-Roi; by the main road n ° 170 (714m) from Tilly to Vert, by the ordinary local road n ° 2 (400m) in the village, and by the ordinary local road n ° 3 (607m) from Flins to the Moulin-à -Vent (Municipality of Tilly).

      To meet the expenses necessary for the maintenance of its paths, the town imposed itself for 1900, to:

3 days of services 391f

5 ordinary special centimes 38f

Salary of the roadmender 100f

3 extraordinary special centimes 23f

40f loan repayment

                    Total… 592f

​

The share of the municipality in the expenditure of the great communication paths will be 198f.

      The benefits are always in kind, the taxpayers collect in the fields the stones which will be used for the maintenance of their paths and which are paid to them at the rate of 2 f 25 per cubic meter.

      Flins-Neuve-Eglise is located between two railway lines of the Western network; the stations serving the town are: Houdan, on the Granville line for travelers or foodstuffs heading to Dreux; Tacoignières, (12km away) on the same line transports travelers and products to Versailles and Paris; Bréval, (9km) on the Cherbourg line is the station providing the most services to the town. The fertilizers sent by the union arrive in Bréval; it is from Bréval that the farmers leave who go to Maules to sell grain there.

      A few foxes and badgers are killed every year on the territory during the hunting season; the martens, more numerous, live in the fodder lofts and destroy many eggs and poultry.

       State of the property, Principal crops, Cattle breeding, Horses, oxen, cows, sheep, poultry, game, birds, insects, pests.

      The property is quite divided, the smallest rooms have an area of 12 ares 50 (a district) and the largest only reach 2 hectares (4 arpents). Almost all cultivators make use of land which they own; a few, however, are farmers as well as owners.

      There are no large farms, but only small cultivation houses.

      The main crops are wheat, oats and fodder; it is customary for cultivators to harvest oats after harvesting wheat and leave the land to rest until October and the following year.

      Each farmer has 3 to 10 cows and 1 or 2 horses. Cows are mainly raised for calves and manure; the milk is sold at the Bréval dairy for 13 cents per liter in winter and 9 to 10 cents in summer.

      The calves are sold lean to merchants in Dammartin or Ivry, or fat at the market in Houdan. Almost all female calves are bred to breed cows; every year the farmer sells one or two cows from his barn when he has a few heifers he can put instead.

      Farmers only buy foals from 6 months to 1 year old, which they pay from 400 francs to 1000 francs, these foals are almost all of the Percheron breed and are sold when they reach 5 to 6 years old.

      Large quantities of poultry are raised in the town, chicks, ducklings, geese and turkeys, in the course of December the farmers force the turkeys of the year to hatch (they call this resolving the turkeys): they put under each one of them. they from 15 to 25 chicken eggs; when these eggs are hatched they deliver other eggs and so for 3 to 4 months.

      The turkeys are then fattened and sold.

      All the poultry raised in the commune are sold fat at the markets of Mantes and Houdan which are open on Wednesdays of each week. The average price of these poultry is: chick 3 f 50 to 6 f; duck, 2 f 50 to 3 f 50; goose, 6 f to 8 f, turkey 6 to 12 f.

      Game is not rare in the area; we meet many partridges and quails as well as some hares.

      However, many partridge nests are destroyed every year at hay time.

      The farmer's most feared pest is the rat, which not only causes serious damage to wheat stacks but even attacks domestic rabbits and pigeons. He therefore needs a bitter war. Cats are not sufficient, traps rarely catching rats that have become suspicious, farmers have subscribed to rat hunters who come several times a year to poison these harmful rodents.

II - Historical sketch

Modern times and contemporary times. Monuments, castles, churches, town hall etc.

The Town Hall was built in 1877; it is a small square building with only one ground floor.

      The very old church is built in a very simple style, repairs are absolutely essential. The commune which intends to repair its church, obtained from the department an assistance of 500 f; but the estimate established by the architect of the district amounting to 2527 f 13 the municipality which does not have any resources proposes to open a subscription to collect the additional resources.

III - Public education

      The school was built in 1893 and cost 15,500 francs including:

• state           12128 f

• Department   3032 f

• Commune         340 f ​

      I am the first teacher owned by the town and was appointed on September 1, 1895.

      Until 1895, the children of Flins-Neuve-Eglise attended the Tilly school.

      The commune which has only weak resources wishing to attach itself to the teacher made a point of paying him about as high a salary as that of the teachers of the surrounding communes which have a much larger territory and carry a much higher income.

      The pupils, boys and girls, attending school at least last August numbered 28, including 17 children from the public assistance of Seine-et-Oise; one of the latter obtained the certificate of studies in Houdan on July 3.

      Every year, from November 15 to February 15, an adult course is open 3 days a week from 7 am to 8 ½ in the evening; young people attend the course regularly during the three months it lasts. They were 6 in 1895; 10 in 1896; 11 in 1897 and 6 during the last winter.

      School is not called upon to be of great importance, the population never varies much and the number of boys and girls has never exceeded 29; this is what made the Primary Inspector say, in his report of May 12, 1896, that without the wards of public assistance, the school would have no reason to exist.

​

                                    Flins-Neuve-Eglise, September 18, 1899

                                                                                          The teacher

​

Source: departmental archives of Yvelines, municipal monograph of Flins-Neuve-Église written by the Teacher on September 18, 1899, document number: 1T / MONO 4 [10], transcription by Mathieu Thédié  

​