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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Vallois Corderie Industrial Museum is housed in a 19th-century factory in the Cailly Valley in Notre-Dame-de-Bondeville (Seine-Maritime). This site, originally dedicated to cotton spinning, was transformed into ropemaking in 1880 by Jules Vallois, who installed English and French machines operated by a hydraulic wheel. The factory, which employed about 45 workers, closed in 1978, but its heritage was preserved thanks to a local association.

Originally, the site housed a paper mill in the 18th century, replaced in 1821 by a wood-split mill. In 1825, a royal order authorized the installation of a hydraulic cotton mill operated by the Fouquet family, then purchased in 1836 by E.-H. Rondeaux. After a brief conversion into wool spinning in the 1860s, Jules Vallois, first tenant and then owner from 1897, installed a mechanical ropemaking. Machinery, still in working order, was classified as movable in 1984.

The museum, inaugurated in 1994 under the auspices of the Seine-Maritime department, retains all the machines of the late nineteenth century, as well as the original buildings. These equipments, operated by a hydraulic wheel, illustrate the industrial techniques of the time. The site, classified as a Historical Monument since 1975, benefits from the label Musée de France and offers a rare testimony of the textile and rope industry in Normandy.

The site's backup is due to the intervention of a local association, which has prevented its destruction. Today, the museum offers a dive into the world of ropes, with demonstrations of historical machines still in operation. The exceptionally well preserved machinery park is a unique example of industrial heritage in France.

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