Le château de Montgrimont

This is one of the village’s most emblematic buildings. For some, it simply captures their imagination, for others it is famous for its historical heritage.

Neo-Tudor in style, it  is remarkable for its neo-Gothic embellishments applied to a brick and white stone construction. Built in the second half of the 19th century, on some very old previous foundations, it was originally rectangular in shape, but in 1880 it was somewhat distorted by the addition of an office along  its south-east façade. At the beginning of the 20th century this distortion was attenuated by the addition of skylights, bow-windows and a winter garden. 

However, for the villagers it remains the home of the prestigious inventor Edouard, Delamare Deboutteville. It is here, in fact, that the famous mechanic and engineer drew up the plans for the first modern automobile, the first vehicle to be driven by a four-stroke engine fuelled by petrol. It was built in the cotton  mills situated along the Cailly river at the bottom of his grounds. The factory closed after the sale of the estate in 1991 and since then nature has gradually taken over the 42 hectares of rich natural and cultural heritage.

Montgrimont, or Mont-Grimont, is steeped in history, notably in feudal history. The first part of the name evokes its topography and the second half refers to a family name, originally spelt Grimmund. This patronym is of German origin and is formed of the two words grim, meaning cruel, and mund meaning protection, probably an old warrior’s name. Montgrimont was a former vavasory. A vavasor, from the medieval latin ‘vassus vassorum’,  was the vassal of another lord, himself a vassal. In Normandy, where all tenure was referred to as a fief, there were two legal kinds of vavasory. Some were considered as lords, exercising their rights over the tenures of the second kind, the lesser, non nobles and others. This second kind were called commoners and  were dependent on their barons or lords. In legal testimony the noble vavasories were known as  ‘franches’ (free) vavassories in testaments, the name being taken from the latin expression ‘ liber vavassor’. The nature of this property tenure and the rights relating to dovecotes, hunting, fishing, having a horse or a mare would be the central elements of legal disputes in the 17th and 18th centuries between the monks of the abbey in Fécamp and the vavasory of Montgrimont, dependent on them and their barony.