Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The former stationery of Vaux, located in Payzac, Dordogne, was founded by Camille Bon in the 3rd quarter of the 19th century on the site of an iron forge reconverted in 1861. Most of the installations, including the auget wheels (partly dating from the 18th century) and the paper machines (made in Angoulême and Limoges), were built around 1860. This industrial site, with remarkable homogeneity, produced rye paper – a limousine innovation used to pack meat in butchers. The production line, operated with two hydraulic wheels and completed later by a gasgen and boiler (installed in 1925), remained operational for more than a century with the same equipment.

The stationery ceased operations in 1968, after symbolizing the growth of the regional paper industry. The site, purchased by the municipality of Payzac, includes protected elements since 1996: basins, canals, hydraulic wheels, workshops with their machines (refiners, cutters, dryer cylinders), boiler room, and workers' housing. These installations illustrate an almost intact production chain, where hydraulic and thermal energy was controlled to transform straw and rye into packaging paper, meeting the needs of local traders.

The masters identified include the Nexon (Limoges), Duveau and Trousset (Angoulême) workshops for the round-shaped machine, and Serves Frères (Saint-Étienne) for the 1905 boiler. The classification as a Historic Monument in 1996 underscores the heritage value of this site, a witness to pre-electric industrial techniques and the adaptation of old forges to new productions. The rehabilitation under way by the commune aims to preserve this technical and social heritage, linked to the working and craft life of New Aquitaine.

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