The domain of Fol Enfant

It seems that in Grugny, there had never been any other lordship than the one designated under the rather particular name of Bosc Fol Enfant (mad children), whose name awakens in the imagination the memory of some legend or a bizarre fact...

From the 13th century, this estate paid the lords of Clères various rents and royalties.

In the middle of the 17th century, the estate of Bosc Fol Enfant was in the hands of Guillaume Guéroult, esquire, councillor at the Parliament of Normandy, member of a family of the robe.

After the death of Guillaume Guéroult in 1682, the estate passed successively into the hands of his son François, about whom we know nothing of interest, and then to his grandson Louis François who, having taken possession of it on August 25, 1735, set about rebuilding the family manor. This is the building we know today.

By deed of sale dated 7 March 1759, the Bosc Fol Enfant estate passed into the hands of Louis Le Jardinier, a merchant in Rouen who had three children.

The castle changed owners again following the marriage of Marie Julie Le Jardinier to Adrien Bezuel, a former councillor at the Parliament of Normandy. The latter was imprisoned on December 23, 1793 at the age of 34 in the St Lô prison in Rouen where he remained for 10 months and 8 days.

The Bézuels had a daughter, Caroline, who married Jean Armand Alexandre de Montlambert born in 1782 at the Château de Montlambert, commune of Catenay, canton of Buchy. He is descended from Jean Charles, esquire, lord of Montlambert, co-owner and lord of Catenay, Councillor secretary to the King, house and crown of France, controller in the chancery born on 4 May 1745 and married on 30 May 1775 to Marie Henriette Françoise Fiquet du Clariel.

Armand de Montlambert was the mayor of Grugny from 1815 to 1837. He died at the age of 69 at the Fol Enfant on 1 June 1851. He was buried in the cemetery of La Houssaye Béranger as well as his wife, née Bézuel, who died on 2 April 1869. The war memorial of La Houssaye was erected on the site of their burial, with the agreement of their descendant Mr. Legonidec de Penlan. Two plaques placed behind the monument commemorate them. The castle then became the property of Mr. Arthur de Montlambert.

Mademoiselle Albertine Alexandre de Montlambert, born in Rouen on 12 June 1812, married Louis Aimé François Legonidec de Penlan.

The lands of Bosc Fol Enfant extended over the communes of Grugny, Ormesnil and La Houssaye Béranger. A division made in 1869 between the five children of the family led to subdivisions, so that Arthur de Montlambert only owned the part in which the castle was included. He was in turn first the deputy mayor of Grugny from 1871 to 1878, then the mayor from 1878 to 1893. On his death, the castle passed to Jean Legonidec de Penlan, a young industrialist, the mayor of Grugny from 1896 to 1898, who did not live on site and sold the estate to the department of the Seine Basse in 1905 to set up the current asylum.

The castle of Bosc Fol Enfant is an 18th century brick building with a central building covered with a high slate roof with 4 dormers and adorned with a triangular pediment that was once sculpted. It is flanked by two wings as an extension of the central body with attics, and on each side, at right angles, a building surmounted by a campanile. In one of these annexes, there is the old chapel of the estate. The beautiful garden has remarkable trees. Avenues of lime trees protect the castle from the north and west winds. Two of these exceptionally large lime trees would have deserved to be included in Gadeau de Kerville's book on remarkable trees!