commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
Orville is situated southwest of Arras, at the junction of the D24 and D938 roads, by the banks of the river Authie, on the border with the department of the Somme.
History
In the early 20th century, the village of Orville was home to more than a thousand people, among them more than 500 Belgian workers who had been attracted by the presence of
phosphate
In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid .
The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phosph ...
mines. The discovery of phosphates could be compared at the time to the gold rush of America's far-west. There were up to 30 quarries extracting the phosphate-rich sand.
The phosphate mines that had been discovered in 1887 were in use until the beginning of the 20th century, when richer and cheaper Moroccan and Tunisian imports became available.
Extraction of sand
Sand mining is the extraction of sand, mainly through an open pit (or sand pit) but sometimes mined from beaches and inland dunes or dredged from ocean and river beds. Sand is often used in manufacturing, for example as an abrasive or in concr ...
for building and other use was still operating in the 1970s.
The present name of this site is "the buttes of Orville" and is currently used as an international renowned clay pigeon shooting ground.
Population
Places of interest
* The church of St.Martin, dating from the nineteenth century.
* The
watermill
A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...
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 ...