The history of the manor house of "Grand Ménez"

The manor house of Grand Ménez, in breton “Ménez-Bras”, is situated in the rural part of the Esquibien community, near to Pointe du Raz (Finistère).

The date of its construction, which I have been unable to discover, would appear to be of the Middle Age. According to tradition passed from month to month and from generation to generation which I believe, although it cannot be proved, is not far from the truth, it was established by the lord of the manor of Ménez. He would have taken part in crusade and received a grant of the land at Ménez almost certainly from King St. Louis of France. The lordship of the manor must have been fairly important, for it contained a number of settlements and a great many noble houses.

The foundation of the settlement of Kersivien was finally established in 1777 by one of my ancestors, Hervé Cariou who was mayor of the village of Esquibien during the Revolution, earning an annual income of eight stacks of corn, four stacks of rye and two stacks of oats (1).

The lord of Ménez used to support a coat of arms consisting of completely golden cross set in azure blue. In the first quarter, there was a silver right hand and around the whole coat of arms there is the collar of the Royal Order of St. Michael of which order the lord was knight. In the attached photograph you can make out under he helmet the motto “Faith and Deeds” (“Fide et Operé).

At the end of the Old Regime, “Ménez-Bras” belong to the Kergariou family. After the Revolution, the head of the house emigrated to England and the rest of the family to Köblenz (Germany). Count Joseph of Kergariou served as an infantry officer in the Royalist Army which was defeated at Quiberon by the Republican forces. He was killed in combat and his grave can be found in the local cemetery.

Not one number of the family stayed in France. Their belongings were confiscated by the State and sold as such. There were auctioned at knocked down prices by Citizen Yves Péllé, a corn merchant at Kervréac’h in Audierne on 20th Nivose in the second year of the revolutionary calendar and realised 20.400 livres.

From then on, the manor house and its annexes were used as farm buildings. The oratory situated in the large room on the ground floor was used as a dairy, one of the manor’s wings was designated for various agricultural uses and until the last few years, the ground floor of the tower was used as a stable.

Later on, “Ménez-Bras” knew many owners of whom Mr. R.A. De Couvrant was mayor of Esquibien from 1838 to 1844 and from April to August 1848. The community did not have a town hall; one of the rooms in the tower was used for this purpose.

Mr. De Couvrant was succeeded by M. Du Manoir who also lived in Ménez-Bras. On his death a farmer Yves Jaouen bought the place but he was never able to meet the purchase price and the problem was settled by resale. Finaly, the estate belonged to the Viscount of Coatpont from Plabennec, the former Consul General of Finistère. He never lived in the place. The farmers stayed on and the years went by without any notables events.

Nevertheless, when in 1905 the law came into force separating the Church from the State, the priests of the parish, as a gesture of protest, left the rectory in the market town to come and live at Ménez-Bras. Abbot Michael, the rector, and his vicar lived in two rooms in the tower. They stayed there for a period of time but I am unable to say precisely how long.

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The manor is built near the top of a prominent hillock overlooking a green valley. It was to begin with a small fortress; to the west there were moats of which evidence still remained at the beginning of this century; to the north and to the east there were high walks broached by loophole (slits to pull arrows) which can still be clearly seen, even today.

The Ménez-Bras was connected by both an avenue and a tunnel to the “noble house” of Kerhorre which was dependent upon it. The tunnel which was around fifteen hundred metres long started in the cellar but has been block; recent excavations have however uncovered it. As far as the avenue is concerned, it has not existed for a long time – but what still does exist is the place called “Garo Avenue” (called improbably “Calégoro” or in French “Stag Lane”) which sounds as if it ought to have been situated near to where the avenue ran.

Near one of the wings, there used to be the conventional type of kiln, the door to which was let into one of the walks, and at the bottom of the orchard one can still see traces of a dove cote.

In the spacious courtyard, there still remains intact and in good condition, a medieval sink hewn out of a single piece of stone; it comprises two separate parts each of different depths linked at the top and emptying separately at the bottom. On the outside rim a more shallow area has been hollowed out into which soap and other things could be put. Next to it, there is a washing stone, extremely well polished in granite. This device is still used in own times.

Then we also find, placed against the front of the building, a small construction some eighty centimetres high covered over by a flag stone one hundred and sixty centimetres long and a hundred centimetres wide, at the end of which are some steps which enable it to be climbed upon. This is the mounting stone which allowed the Countess of Kergariou to get on her horse. Nearby the iron ring used to tie up the horse has survived the ravages of time…

In the old days, there was a windmill connected with Ménez-Bras. The farmers of the settlements beings dependent upon the domain were obliged to grind their corn there, just as they were obliged to contribute to the construction and upkeep of the large earth banks surrounding the seigniorial estate which in those days consisted of a farm (the “Véroury”). The windmill culminated on a large hillock, a few hundred metres from the manor; he has been razed about 1885.

The manor also possessed its own chapel located in the garden. On the outside, in the front you can see the crown of a count, sculptured in relief into the stone. Inside, there is a font which bears the head of Crusader on the exterior. In the past, the chapel was dedicated to St. Julian, but a few years after the “Apparitions” the family which owned the estate at the time made a pilgrimage to Lourdes and brought back a statue of the Virgin Mary almost natural greatness and very prettily; from them on the chapel was dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes and since then up to the beginning of this century the people of neighbouring villages met there in evenings during the month of May to celebrate “Mary’s month”.

All that has gone before seems to confirm that a lord of Ménez took part in the Crusades.

Originally, the land of the Ménez stretched from Pont-Pren to the Loch. It has decreased in surface since them. That’s how during the 17th century a “Juveigneur” of the Ménez – this name was given in those days to a noble family youngest son – built the manor of Lézurec and receive an extensive area of woods and lands. This family took the name of “Du Ménez de Lézurec”.

The “Ménez-Bras” has always been surrounded by trees, standing timbers and copse and had two important areas of grassland : one situated in the north, the other one in the south. This south area is now part of Audierne, which became a borough in 1793, but this part of the estate has always kept the name of “Fouennec ar Ménez”. The south-west end had been severed of a part of the land which had been offered to the Lady of Kermabon by one of the last lords of the Ménez for … a kiss.

According to a stubborn legend, there would be a hidden treasure in the manor. This treasure, gold and silver coins, would have been buried by the emigrants before they went abroad. But ancient excavations to discover it have remained vain.

After the Revolution, the manor was neither maintained nor fit out. Until the present days the ground floor was a hard packed surface, the floor of the bedrooms was made of cob, and the attic dormer windows had partly disappeared. The owls had taken up residence in the tower garret. By night their hooting could be heard in the trees, as well as some strange noises in the attic, and Marie-Louise, the old and kind servant, used to say that the manor was haunted.

After the sale, the surrounded wall – 2 metres wide – and the beautiful stables situated at the top of the yard were demolished; the freestones were used to built a small manor, situated 2 km 500 east (about 1.5 miles). To differentiate the two manors, one was called “Ménez-Bras”, the other one “Ménez-Bihan”.

Lastly, the “Ménez-Bras” belonged to the marquis Jean Bruno de Sartre, who lived in Carrières-sous-Bois, near Paris, and was, by his mother, Mr. Le Bescond de Coatpont’s grand-son.

The domain converted into a farm after the Revolution was kept by the Jaouen-Pichon family, who had been on the premises since several generations.

The owner, who was penniless, merely collected the farm rent, without having any repairs done, so that the manor went on deteriorating from year to year. Mr. de Sartre decided to sell. The lands and the woods were easily sold but the outdated and dilapidated mansion didn’t find any buyer. Faced with this situation, the notary, responsible for the sale, told me that the owner was disposed to let the manor for the price of the freestones. The ruins would have remained on the spot, and would have formed a rubble heap. Moreover, if the manor had disappeared, its beautiful environment would probably have been conformed to another use.

This would have been a sacrilege. I had to give back a soul to these old buildings, testimony of a long past.

(1) Departmental records of Finistère