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Origin and history

The manor house of the Court, located in Saint-Martin-le-Hébert in the English Channel, is an ancient fortified house dating back to the 14th century. Originally, the seigneury depended on the barony of Bricquebec. In 1350, the Paynels, Barons of Bricquebec, handed it over to Guillaume de la Marre, whose daughter Thomasse married her to the family of Orglandes in 1372. It was Jean d'Orglandes who built the current mansion, typical of the defensive architecture of the late 14th or early 15th century. The property remained in this family for 238 years, until its exchange in 1610 with Guillaume Plessard, king's attorney at Valognes.

Guillaume Plessard, the new seigneur, undertook important work after 1612, adding a dovecoier of 1,595 bolts, a new pavilion to scauguette, and modernizing the windows with shingles and frontons. These developments, typical of the early seventeenth century, marked his seigneurial authority. The mansion then passed by alliances and inheritances to the Marcade families, Osbert, then Turgot, before being sold in 1809 to Louis Henri de Chivré. In the 19th century, it became a farm leased to farmers, such as the Coupey or Taillefesse families, while maintaining its status as a historic monument.

During the Second World War (1943-1944), the mansion was requisitioned by the German occupant as a supply depot, sheltering bread ovens producing 4,000 daily balls and flour stocks. After the war, he inspired works of fiction, such as the novel Un Bénédictin by Aristide Frémine (1837-1887) and served as a stage for the telefilm La Comete (1996). Today, the ensemble, classified and inscribed in historical monuments (1954 and 1993), illustrates the architectural evolution of a Norman seigneury, from the 14th to the 17th centuries, with its moat, its interior wash, and its terraced gardens.

The building is characterized by a square plan lined with moat, accessible by a dormant bridge replacing the old drawbridge. The seigneurial house, renovated in the 17th century, preserves monumental chimneys, woodwork and shale paving. The northwestern turret houses an octagonal washer fed by a spring, while the two dovecotes (one of which is 1,595 bolts) bear witness to the seigneurial prestige. The access avenues and gardens, structured in terraces, complete this remarkable ensemble, representative of the fortified manor houses of the Cotentin.

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