Seine-Maritime
Seine-Maritime () is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. Until 1955 it was named Seine-Inféri ...
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...
in northern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
Geography
An industrial town based around an ancient village situated in the
Pays de Caux
The Pays de Caux (, , literally ''Land of Caux'') is an area in Normandy occupying the greater part of the French ''département'' of Seine Maritime in Normandy. It is a chalk plateau to the north of the Seine Estuary and extending to the cliffs o ...
, some east of
Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very ...
, in between the D982 and D9015 roads. The
A131 autoroute
The A131 Autoroute starts at in the outskirts of Le Havre and ends near Bourneville-Sainte-Croix close to exit 26 on the A13.
It is operated by the Société des Autoroutes de Paris Normandie (SAPN). Its total length is . Apart from the Pont ...
cuts through the middle of the commune alongside the banks of the Tancarville canal.
The economy depends mainly on the industrial area of the Port of the Lower-Seine (chemical works and refineries) and the commercial area known as Camp-Dolent.
History
The etymology of the first part of the name is ''Gunfridr's farm'', a Scandinavian farmer who probably settled in the 10th century.
The Orcher suffix comes from the name of the first
seigneurs
''Seigneur'' is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. A seigneur refers to the person or collective who owned a ''seigneurie'' (o ...
of the village, now corrupted to Orcher, but originally ''Aurichier'' (''alor'' = alder and ''kjarr / ker'' = marsh. Cf.
Ellerker
Ellerker is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately west of Hull city centre and east of the market town of Howden. It lies south of the A63 road junction with the A1034 road.
Acc ...
, Yorkshire), that took themselves in turn their name from the same place, where the chateau is located.
The commune was created and recorded in 1251 with the merger of the two parishes of Gonfreville and Gournay. A
priory
A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of ...
had stood here since 1024 but long before that,
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
people had been here, witnessed by the tools unearthed during the 19th century and the name Gournay is a Celtic archetype ''*Gornako'', connected with a wet place.
Heraldry
Population
Places of interest
* The church of St. Erconwald, dating from the nineteenth century.
* The remains of a
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...
château
A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions.
No ...
d'Orcher
* Vestiges of the
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
d'Orcher in the park of the present-day chateau.
* The Renaissance
manorhouse
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
de Bévilliers (sixteenth century).
* The church of Notre-Dame, dating from the seventeenth century.
* The
chapel
A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common type ...
at Dignefort, dating from the thirteenth century (Now a private house).
* A fifteenth century
dovecote
A dovecote or dovecot , doocot ( Scots) or columbarium is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be free-standing structures in a variety of shapes, or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pige ...