Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Fraenckel-Herzog spinning plant, located in Elbeuf (Seine-Maritime), was built around 1880 by the Fraenckel brothers, Alsatian drapiers who fled Alsace after the 1870 war. Installed on the site of an old factory acquired in 1879, it integrates spinning, weaving and finishing of wool sheets. The building, made of brick and metal frame, initially extends over 17,000 m2 and employs up to 2,000 workers in the 1920s, becoming Elbeuf's second largest factory.

In 1914, the Fraenckel joined the Herzog brothers, of whom Émile Herzog (future writer André Maurois) was an active member until the 1920s. The company, transformed into a public limited company in 1924, reached its peak with 1,500 workers in 1929. Damaged during the Second World War, the factory was partially rebuilt but closed permanently in the late 1960s. Its remaining buildings, including a two-coloured brick workshop and a boiler room equipped with Veillet-Lescure boilers, were protected as historical monuments in 1994 and 1995.

The site illustrates the industrial architecture of the late 19th century, with decorative elements like cast iron draughts with F-B initials, recalling the initial association with the Blin family. After its closure, some of the buildings are intended to house a future textile museum, while others house various activities (carpentry, ASSEDIC). The boiler plant, classified, retains a historic boiler and underground tunnel for the storage of coal, testimonies of the production techniques of the period.

The spinning is part of the economic history of Elbeuf, the major city of the French wool industry. Its decline in the 1960s reflects changes in the textile sector, marked by deindustrialisation. Today, the site, a property shared between the municipality and the private sector, remains a symbol of Norman industrial heritage, with a heritage and cultural vocation being developed.

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