Once upon a time there was a waterfall...
Yes, the highest waterfall of 2.50 meters at Le Clain! Well, okay, it's not Niagara Falls, but still ...
But still sufficient to allow the construction of a small flour mill, by the abbey Saint-Martin in Ligugé.
During the revolution, the mill was sold as a national asset to a contractor who razed it to the ground and built a large six-storey flour mill and two large paddle wheels in its place.
He then diversified and created a first spinning mill building. His successor, driven by the increasing demand for textiles, considerably enlarged the complex. The company becomes the second largest in Vienna with 450 workers.
At the same time, he develops a social policy, with the creation of workers' houses with gardens, a nursery, a mutual health insurance company, an infirmary, a soccer stadium, a pond, a brass band...
A little later, this type of policy would be called "paternalistic" (and that's bad!), and a little later still, the same type of policy would be called "progressive" (and that's good!). This is how times go...
After the war, the traditional textile demand collapsed, and in order to survive, the management of the time tried to gain a foothold in a new market: yoghurts made of waxed cardboard.
The factory was revived until around 1970... and the appearance of plastic pots! In 1176, it is the end of the story, and the abandonment of these huge premises.
Little by little, a wasteland is established, but which becomes dangerous. The rest of the buildings are doomed to demolition, but a handful of people believe in a possible rescue and the redeployment of a new economic activity on the site. At the end of a road strewn with obstacles, in 2013, new spaces open, offices, workshops, ...
Appearance of about twenty companies
Sharing resources and experience, some twenty companies have already set up in these new spaces, with new approaches. They work in the fields of craftsmanship, the environment, digital technology, art, and so on.
They are based on new approaches to training and learning, sharing resources and knowledge.
They are part of international networks of very small production units, the "Fablabs", facilitating access to digital tools, in a logic of data sharing...
And the whole thing works and develops...
So, who are they... unusual luminaries, or luminous precursors?
To get an idea, go and meet them!
The Factories - Association AY128
La Filature, Avenue de la Plage
86240 - Ligugé
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
(free version)
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