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History and Destiny ...

 

 

The land of Marquenterre is not exactly like any other land ...

Beyond its outstanding beauty and wildnerness, unlike most territories in Picardy which have always been inhabited, the Marquenterre region is also unique in its history. Two main features characterize it :

  • A royal domain that has crossed centuries since the first millennium, almost without land divisions until today.
  • A land which has been granted to a community of farmers and fishermen - "the commune of Marquenterre" - as early as in the very last years of the 12th century and which survived almost until the French Revolution ( and to some extent still lives, at   least in some people's minds...)

 

 

A royal domain...

From time immemorial, these foreshores of the ancient Cantium ( "the Sound of Quend" - "la Mer de Quend" in French ), known by the Romans as the last stop on the continent before crossing for Britain, were lands of wilderness . A realm ruled by sand and water.

These warrens ("garennes" in French ) were probably aggregated to the County of Ponthieu   when   that one was formed in carolingian times.

This period is not well-known, except from some records of Normans forays, but one can see this shore reappear on the Tapestry of Bayeux    with the arrest of Harold of Wessex by Wido, Count of Ponthieu, before being handed over to William of Normandy . We know the rest of the story

The Commune of Marquenterre

On the 2 nd of September, in the holy year of 1199, during the downbeat of the Crusades, along with a major movement of communal emancipation in Picardy, Guillaume, count of Ponthieu and his wife Alice, daughter of the French king Louis the 7 th , granted to the men of Mareskienterre a charter which begins as a sentence in the contemporean Magna Carta :

Article 1 st : "The men of Marquenterre shall give a hand to each other..."

Edward the 1 st , king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Aquitaine, count of Ponthieu and Montreuil, together with his wife Eleanor, will confirm 80 years later their "men of Marquenterre" in their rights.

Royal fiefdom granted to a community essentially formed of farmers and fishermen, self-administered, the Marquenterre will cross the centuries until the 18 th , when over a few decades, its originality will disappear under the pressure of new agricultural techniques.

Once considered as a well-to-do community (did not one say that the parish of Quend was the wealthiest of the diocese ?), the Marquenterre community will die around 1750. The meadows, until then mostly washed by the tides, will be transformed into arable land, behind dykes, locally called "renclotures" (enclosures ).

The "Garenne" of Tourmont

In parallel, the Garenne (warren) of Tourmont, adjacent to the salted meadows of Marquenterre, called the Bas-Champs (the lowlands), will remain intangible during   more than six centuries, probably because not generating much interest, being only a place for hunting   reserved to the king.

Heir of the counts of Ponthieu, member of the French royal family, the count of Artois becomes the lord of the domain. A territory of walking sand dunes, burying churches, one after the other.One says that the current church of Saint-Quentin-en-Tourmont is the third of its name, the former two ones being buried somewhere under the dune.

In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the Garenne is sold to a merchant from Ham (Somme).It still lays then over 6000 acres as a whole, from the estuary of the river Somme to the estuary of the river Authie.

It is only after the death of the Marquess of Querrieu (Somme), who had acquired it in 1866, that the Garenne will be divided for the first time in 1877 and 1878 , resulting in five lots whose the largest one -2500 acres- is located south, right at the edge of the Baie de Somme. That one will be purchased in 1923 by Henri Jeanson and will bear since then the name of "Domaine du Marquenterre".

The Jeansons family or the story of the estate since 80 years

 


 Henri Jeanson, owner and founder of the Domaine du Marquenterre in 1923.

 

Indeed, the Jeansons will live a true love affair with the estate. Having acquired it initially for the pleasures of hunting, they will undertake several outstanding initiatives that will demonstrate a permanent quest of harmony between man and nature.

World War II   is a devastation. The few tall trees of the estate are cut down to prevent a landing from the Allies. The shore line is transformed into a fortress, covered with bunkers of the German army, watching fiercely over the estuary of the river Somme.

The relic of the past are still quite present nowadays, though half-buried by the sand or hidden by the vegetation. They represent a real historical treasure for the generations to come, in particular in our times of European unification. You will be able to visit some of them should you come to us.

Then, comes the time of the rabbit disease ( myxomatosis ) which, in 1953, is going to offer a unique opportunity for the entire region, that of fixing the moving sand dunes. Because until then, these nice little rodents, thriving here by thousands, never had given much chance to the trees to survive, the tiniest bud being immediately nibbled.

This is Michel Jeanson, heir and owner of the estate, who spearheads this initiative for the entire region.


Michel and Claude Jeanson, summer 2004.
© photo tibo

 

True Herculean works are being undertaken by a local trust grouping all owners of sand dunes from the Somme estuary to the Authie estuary. They are completed within a decade and will succeed in fixing the dunes with beachgrass and sweet clover seeds, then growing the forest, mainly with Corsican and black Austrian pines, to provide us for an absolutely unique landscape today in northern France.

Restless, Michel Jeanson is going to undertake many other initiatives, in particular in horticulture, becoming the largest producer of flower onions (tulips, hyacinths,...) in France. He also will act as the champion of a balanced strategy to rationally drain the "Bas-Champs"  while retaining enough water in the area to keep it attractive for the avian fauna.

The boldest one among these initiatives will give birth, in 1973, to the "Ornithological Park of Marquenterre", an outstanding bird sanctuary which will be attracting more and more public over years to reach today 150.000   visitors.

The park is owned   by the Conservatoire du Littoral (the equivalent of the National Trust for France) since 1983 and managed by the Board of Cooperation for the Picardy Coast (SMACOPI). On its northern edge, it sits right next to Marcanterra Sea Ranch and could really be considered as the jewel in the crown, at the heart of the Reserve Naturelle of   the Bay de Somme, which sits over 8750 acres of tidal sands.

Many other unique events could be told in this true epic which has been lasting over 80 years : the upcoming of the wild boar following the creation of the forest, the very first nests of avocets known in Picardy, the comeback of the storks, the acclimatization of the Mouflon and last but not least, the arrival of the Henson horse breed which have found here their iconic territory.

This piece of vain land (warren, garenne) between France and England, today revealed as a   "cathedral of nature" among the cathedrals of stone in Picardy, at the outset of a XXIst century becoming more and more conscious of our environment, keeps conveying   its unique message to celebrate the quest of harmony between man and nature.

Today, Marcanterra Sea Ranch is relaying these past initiatives to carry on the history and the destiny of this territory.

Come and share this adventure with us…Welcome to Marcanterra Sea Ranch !