La cour du Manoir - Court of the Manor - in la Grande Rue/rue Sadi Carnot

The donation of Vimoutiers and its appurtenances

►from map 1779

" There was there a fortified Manor ... probably still made from wood and having never had other great purposes than to protect from plunderers and warriors in petty thieving certainly ... but which constituted nevertheless the piece of resistance of that time.

► In year 911, July the 11th, by the treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, Normandy, in Neustrie then, is given to the Norwegian Viking leader Rollo.

► Circa 950, gives Vimoutiers, Crouttes and le Renouard to warriors, of whom Osmont his equerry, who had saved him from the attaints of his tutor suzerain, Louis IV d'Outremer, aka Louis IV of overseas,  king of France. Richard keeps the manor.

► In 995, Osmont and his companions make a present of their possessions to the Abbey of Jumieges and,

► In 1024, confirms to the Abbey of Jumieges the possession of these territories of Vimoutiers and moreover offers to them the manor that he had inherited as well as its appurtenances.

Hereunder how, circa 1060, William of Jumieges, known as Guillaume Calculus, reported the event in his History of the Normans :

"Making a halt in Jumieges, Richard II rested for the night in the abbey. The following day, up early in the morning as he would usually do, he walked to the Abbey in order to pray, then his prayer ended, he posed a small piece of wood on the altar. As he was withdrawing, the sextons appproached the altar, believing they would find a marc, one ounce of gold or something similar. But they found there only the small piece of wood, so not without astonishment, they wondered what that meant. Finally, they asked to the Prince what was the thing that he had laid on the altar. The Prince answered that it was the manor of Vimoutiers, of which, for the salvation of his soul, he made a present to them".

But for several centuries, Normandy will be a stake of fight between France and England until 1450, when Dunois and his companions drove for good the English conquerors out of France. Nevertheless the fights were incendiary and History lets think that the manor, the first Church Notre-Dame and half of the village and its inhabitants perished in the flames.

More about : Richard I or Richard II