Le marais de Saint-Omer

The marsh adjoining Saint-Omer is a small and very original natural region but it is much threatened to-day. We have attempted to reconstitute its life and aspect in the pre-industrial period (XIIIh-XVIIIth century) and even its natural aspect before the great works of the XIIth century". Following this we study the conquest of this marsh by men, conquest which started during the carolingian period and was completed in the XIIth century when the burghers of Saint-Omer established their fluvial link with Gravelines and the North Sea in two stages, first about 1 100 for 6-ton boats, then about 1 160 for 300-ton sea-ships and sometimes more. During this time countrypeople, monks and canons, lords and peasants had achieved a complete hold of the land and water in the marsh. By stydying the archives in Saint-Omer we can discover the life of the marsh at the end of the Middle Ages and perceive its various aspects more closely : marketgardening around the town, meadows, peat-bogs and fishing on the border of tne marsh and, in the centre, the commons belonging to the burghers of Saint-Omer, which were a real polder dried by windmills

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Art history · CONQUEST · Geography · Marsh · Natural (archaeology) · Peat · Period (music) · SAINT · Wetland · French Urban and Social Studies · History