The former activities

Consulting the censuses allows us to know the professional activities of the villagers from 1841 onwards.

In Grugny, the population (between 180 and 200 people from 1850 to 1900) in the middle of the 19th century was mainly made up of farmers (in 1921, the largest farm in Menillet belonged to Eugène Canville, the mayor of the village), craftsmen and many day labourers. Certain professions are common in all villages, such as masons, carpenters, roofers, carpenters, carters, clog makers, wheelwrights, shepherds, seamstresses, postmen, railway employees, chambermaids (in Bosc Fol Enfant, probably attached to the castle). In 1851, there was a peddler and in 1861 a carpenter, and a number of merchants and resellers, without specifying the nature of the products sold. But what may surprise us most is the large number of people who made a living from textile-related activities: weavers, spinners: 67 people in 1851, a third of the population! Not to mention the tailors and seamstresses. Often, these activities complemented agricultural work. The weavers fetched the threads from the markets and brought the fabrics, or the production was collected by commission agents from textile companies in Rouen and the Cailly and Austreberthe valleys.

From 1861-62, the American Civil War stopped cotton imports, and the reduction of customs duties on English linen dealt a fatal blow to weaving in our countryside.

In the 1861 census, 31 people were still making a living from an activity related to textiles, there were only 9 left in 1876.

In 1841, a baker operated, in 1861, a coffee maker and a butcher, Mr. Bosselin Ignace who can be found until 1876, who was probably succeeded by his two sons, Gustave and Henri, butchers in their turn in 1881. In 1876 at the Menillet, there lived a baker, Mr. Botté Ulysse and his wife Eugénie Vieillot, who ran a café-grocery store. In 1891 there was still a butcher, a baker, a fishmonger (it was to be a female fishmonger in 1921, Mrs. Bellière). After 1900, only a café in the town centre remained run by Mrs Bottois Marie and Octavie and a grocery café in Le Ménillet still run by Mr Botté Ulysse and his wife Mrs Vieillot. She continued on her own after the death of her husband.

It was these two establishments that would go through the 20th century. Postcards from the 1920s mention Mr. Fleutry Emile's café-grocery store near the church, who was at the same time a shopkeeper, café owner, restaurateur, distiller, publisher of postcards and also a town councillor in 1921 (Mrs. Fleutry ran a restaurant at the time of the 2nd World War under the large pergola, even after the death of her husband in 1943). A petrol pump was across the street. After the Fleutry family, the Durand family (who organized a ball on July 14 in front of the café) succeeded each other until 1990, the Delarue family from 1990 to 1995, then Dominique Desreux who offered billiards competitions on Friday evenings. Mrs. Dieul continued the café-tobacco and billiards business from 2001, then closed the establishment for good in 2005.

In the 1920s, the Evrard family's café-restaurant was held in Le Menillet. Then it was Roger Dubos (who died with his head crushed by a tree) and his wife Yvonne who continued the activity after the death of her husband. Mrs. Petit (whose husband worked at the asylum) took over, and also ran a restaurant. Communion and wedding meals took place at her home, as well as the Christmas snack for the school children. Then followed the Mochet families (Gérard, Claude and Solange, then Luc and Claude), Doublet, Malmaison. Finally, Mr. and Mrs. Gibon René took over the establishment around 1993-1994 and closed it around 2015.