Last modified: 2007-12-02 by ivan sache
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![[Flag of Honnelles]](../images/b/be-whtho.gif)
Municipal flag of Honnelles - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 6 May 2006
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The municipality of Honnelles (5,009 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 4,365 ha) is
located on the border with France, 15 km east of Valenciennes and 10 km north-west of Bavay. The municipality of Honnelles was formed in 1976 by the merging of the former municipalities of Angre, Angreau, Athis, Autreppe, Erquennes,
Fayt-le-Franc, Marchipont, Montignies-sur-Roc, Onnezies and Roisin.
These villages were quite isolated and close to France, so that the
main traditional activity there was smuggling, facilitated by 10 kms of
border with France and the development of an elaborated strategy. The
new municipality was named after the two river Grande Honnelle and
Petite Honnelle.
Angre is a very ancient settlement, as proved by Prehistoric, Roman and
Frankish (necropolis) remains found there. Known in the XIth century, the family d'Angre was succeeded by the Counts of Hainaut and then by several local families. The village is mostly rural but has kept a significant wooded area known as the Beaufort wood, which
includes the famous Caillou-qui-Bique, a 25 m high pudding stony rock
looking like a human face. The Walloon singer Flora Leturcq recorded in
the 1960s the famous song Au cayau qui bique inspired by the rock.
The St. Roch's chapel is located on the west of the village on the
grassy top of a hill (69.25 m) dominating the neighborhood; thirty-nine
steeples can be spotted from the chapel. St. Roch is invoked against
the black plague and other epidemic diseases; in the XIXth century,
cholera scoured Belgium, killing 23,000 between 1847 and 1851, and the
devotion to St. Roch resumed. The Angre chapel, built in neo-Gothic
style by the architect Victor Wins, from Mons, was inaugurated on 16
August (St. Roch's Day) 1851; it was a pilgrimage place on 15 August
for a century.
Angre was the cradle of the industrial cultivation of chicory. The
local families Launois and Wallon founded in the XIXth century a
company that became one of the first in Belgium. The industry of
chicory declined during the Second World War and disappeared in the
1960s.
Angre is the birth village of the engraver Charles Bernier (1871-1950).
Bernier studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Mons, where he was taught
by the painter Bourlard and the encarver Danse. After having won 14
first prizes in Brussels, Antwerp and Paris, Bernier, aged 20, won the
second Prize of Rome in 1891, no first Prize having been awarded that
year. Bernier moved to Paris but he had to come back to Angre after the
death of his father in 1893. Bernier met there the poet Emile
Verhaeren, whose poetry steered him to new fields, portraits and,
later, country landscapes, especially the curves of the river Honnelle.
On 7 August 1949, one year before the artists' death, the municipality
of Angre inaugurated a street named after Bernier and a monument
representing him made the French sculptor Elie Raset.
Angreau is "the little Angre", known as Angrellum in 1118, Angheriel in 1220, Angriaul in 1260 and Angriau in the XVth century. Angreau became a municipality around 1250 and was owned by several feudal families that ran the domain from the Lord's Farm (Ferme du Seigneur), rebuilt in the XIXth century and still inhabited.
Athis is a small village (263 ha) known since 1018/1185 as Astices. The family of Athis was succeeded by several local feudal families. The place called the Cow's Foot (Le Pied de la Vache) is the highest point of Honnelles (125 m).
Autreppes, today the geographical and administrative center of
Honnelles, might have been named after the Latin words alta ripa,
"high banks". The village is indeed built along a brook flowing into the
Honnelle. The village is very small and its area represents only 4% of
the total area of the municipality.
The last lord of Autreppe, Onnezies and Angreau was the famous military
strategist François-Sébastien-Charles-Joseph de la Croix de Clerfayt
(1733-1798).
Erquennes (410 ha) is the easternmost village of Honnelles. It was in
the past divided into two feudal domains. In the XI-XIIth century, the
village was harshly disputed among the local lords, the abbey of
Saint-Ghislain and the abbey of Crespin. This rivalry might explain the great number of religious toponyms such as the Dumbs' Cross Crossroads,
the Street of the Great Cross and the Tree of the Little Good Lord.
Erquennes was in the past a border village. The customs post set up in
the place called "Rat d'Eau" (Water Rat) was transformed into a chip
shop (friterie). The Grand Prix d'Erquennes is still the first
cyclist race of the season in Wallonia.
In 1992, the Festival Committee of Erquennes launched the
Village-Etoiles (Stars' Village) contest. Only some 15 houses were
decorated but the festival became every year more popular, with more
than 100,000 visitors in 1998.
Fayt-le-Franc was probably free (in French, franc) of some taxes and
servitudes in the Middle Ages. The local legend says that a young woman
about to marry the miller escaped the droit du seigneur (something that
probably did not exist in the Middle Ages, anyway) by cutting her
throat. The lord repented, went on the crusade and, back to Fayt,
enfranchized the farmers and suppressed the droit du seigneur. Fayt
might come from fagus, "a beech".
The farm of Rampemont, located near the eponymous wood, isolated from
the village, was the seat of a powerful domain known since the XIth
century. In 1253, Knight Alexandre de Rampemont was listed as a vassal
of the Count of Hainaut and of the Order of the Temple (commanderie of Piéton, today in the municipality of Chapelle-lez-Herlaimont). The domain was later transferred to the Ghoret, Fives and du
Mont families. Thierry I du Mont, husband of Jeanne de Fives and lord
of Rampemont in 1559, was Councillor of Emperor Charles V. His
successor Philippe I du Mont was elected 17 times magistrate
(échevin) in Mons; he was also commissioned to manage the
fortifications of the town.
The linden decorating the square of Fayt is said to have been planted
by General Dumouriez, winner of the battles of Valmy and Jemappes. A
traditional activity in the village was smuggling, since the border,
the brook of Bracquemart was easily crossed using a "secrete" ford.
The municipal merging was probably not welcomed in Fayt, since a plaque
on the former town hall recalls the "last meeting of the Municipal
Council" and deplores "the autonomy lost by Fayt-le-Franc on that 31
December 1976".
Marchipont, now a tiny village, was the place of a bridge (in French, pont) on the grand chemin linking Mons and Valenciennes. The French destroyed the bridge during the battle of Malplaquet, in September 1709. The march might have been created by Emperor Otto I to protect the empire against Arnould I of Flanders. However, the local historian Paul François believes that the name of the village was Mauritson-Pontem, that is "Maurice's bridg"e. Before the fusion, the town hall had only one room, a door and two windows, and housed only the Mayor, two Deputy Mayors and five Municipal Councillors. The rectification of the border decided in 1779 (Treaty of the Limits, Brussels, 18 November 1779) made of the mighty brook Aunelle the new border, so that the parish church and four houses of Marchipont are located on the French territory, in the municipality of Rombies. The church was transferred from the Archbishopric of Cambrai (France) to the Bishopric of Tournai (Belgium) only in 1942.
Montignies-sur-Roc was known in the past as Montenneio (1057, when the
village church was granted to the Chapter of Cambrai), Montegni (1181, in a bull by Pope Lucius confirming the grant), Montigny sur Roc
(1260), Montignies Notre Dame (1468/1489), Montigny Notre Dame sur
Rocqz (1560), Montighy sur Rocg (1589, on a municipal seal), Montegnies
sur Rocq (from 1799 to 1814, on the municipal seal), and Montignies sur
Rocq (from 1833 to 1860, on the municipal seal). The rock on which the
village is built is recalled by several toponyms such as Plat Caillou,
la Roquette, le Haut des Rocs, le Bas des Rocs and le Roctiau.
The French Countess Jeanne de Belleville (1867-1953) settled in
Montignies at the end of the XIXth century. In August-November 1914,
she served as a nurse in the British military hospital of Audregnies.
After the lost battle of Mons, several British soldiers remained behind
the lines and were hidden by Belgian civilians. Jeanne de Belleville,
living close to the border with France, organized a channel to cross
the border, in relation with the castle owned by Prince Reginald de
Croÿ in Bellignies (France). She was arrested by the Germans in August
1915. On 7 October, she was sentenced to death with other members of
the network set up by Edith Cavell. After the execution of Edith Cavell
and Philippe Baucq on 12 October, protest by Spain, the Holy See and
the USA forced the Germans to commute Jeanne de Belleville, Louis
Theuillez and Séverin's sentence to life inprisonment. They were
transferred to the camp of Sieburg, near Bonn, which was liberated by
the German revolutionaries on 8 November 1918.
Onnezies is locally known as le pays des leux. According to Marc Coquelet, there was in Onnezies in the 1860s a famous accordionist named Leleux, who often crossed the woods with the youth of Onnezies to play in Autreppe. The villagers used to say V'là les Leleux d'Onnezies. The only remain of the former feudal castle is its pigeon loft. Onnezies is today famous for its circus, the only permanent in the region.
Roisin, including its hamlet Meaurain, is the biggest village of
Honnelles, representing one quarter of the total area and population of
the municipality. The village was already settled by the Romans, who
called it Racemus ("a grape"). Later names such as Resin, Roizin and
Resenium all allude to the grape, in French, raisin. In the Xth
century, Roisin was one of the 44 Baronies of Hainaut, but nothing has
remained from that time.
Roisin has remained famous as the vacation place of the Belgian poet
Emile Verhaeren (1855-1916). The poet arrived at Roisin in August 1899
with his wife and their friend Emilie Nysten, who translated for
Verhaeren the letters he received from his German friends. They were
welcomed by Anna Rodenbach and her son. Anna was the widow of the
novelist Geroges Urbain Rodenbach (1855-1898), a great friend of
Verhaeren. The two writers are considered as the founders of the
Belgian symbolist school. The doctors advized the widow to leave Paris
for a quite place; her parents from Frameries found a farm located on
the Caillou-qui-Bique, then owned by the Laurent family and known as a
famous inn. After his first visit in Roisin, the Verhaeren came back to
the Caillou-qui-Bique every year until 1914. They received there famous
people, such as the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig in 1904. The Verhaeren
left the place in summer because the poet sufferred from hay fever.
Verhaeren was highly estimated by the villagers and took part to all
kind of celebrations and festivals that took place there. Verhaeren has
remained famous for his poems describing the progress of
industrialization (Les Campagnes hallucinées, 1893; Les Villages
illusoires, 1895; Les Villes tentaculaires, 1895), using (some say
overusing) mechanic assonances (et déchiquette avec des dents
d'entêtement) and celebrating Flanders and the valley of Scheldt
(Toute la Flandre, five volumes, 1904-1911). Verhaeren was shocked by
the First World War and tried to support the allied effort of war,
especially on the Yser frontline. He was killed by a train in the
station of Rouen.
Ivan Sache, 6 May 2006
The municipal flag of Honnelles is diagonally divided
white-red-white-red-white-red.
According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et
germanophones, the flag was proposed by the Heraldry and Vexillology Council
of the French Community and described as Six laizes diagonales descendantes alternativement blanches et rouges.
The flag is a banner of the municipal arms.
According to the Heraldus website, the lords of Roisin were allowed to bear their own banner.
For some ten centuries, the barony of Roisin has belonged to the same
lineage, the lords of Roisin. The oldest known arms of the lords of
Roisin are bandé de six pièces d'argent et de gueules, "Bendy argent
and gules six pieces", which are the current arms of the municipality of
Honnelles. In 1293, Alard added a border or to these arms.
The church of Roisin has an altar dedicated to St. Ghislain, on which
the crest of the arms of the lords of Roisin shows a monkey proper in a
squatting position holding in one hand a bunch of grapes (in French,
raisin, canting for the legendary etymology of the place and family
name) and in the other one a shield "Bendy argent and gules six pieces".
The root of the Roisin family is Baudry of Roisin (Xth century), aka
the Child of the Miracle. The legend says that St. Ghislain saved the
Dame of Roisin, about to die in childbirth, by placing his belt made of
donkey skin on her womb, like a baldric, therefore the name given to
the miraculous child, Baldéric or Baudry (in French, a baldric is a
baudrier).
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 22 July 2007
