Grand-Laviers

History

The Latin names Latverum or Laverum appear in the year 881 in the records of the Abbey of St. Vaast at Amiens. Controversy surrounds the meaning of the name: "lavoir", according to some, or "arm of a river", according to others. In 883, when the Normans sacked the abbey at Saint-Quentin, the king Carloman II of France, set up his camp at Laviers to block their passage to the sea. In the 11th century, a fort comprising a palisade on a motte was built at Laviers, near the Bois de Bonance, on a point jutting out towards the bay. In 1137, Abbeville’s charter, granted by the Comte de Ponthieu, mentioned "Laveriœ". In 1177, Jean de Ponthieu gave money to the leper hospital of the frères du Val and the gift of a forest was noted. The clearing of an area of the forest now known as the "Valley of the Lepers", between Laviers and Buigny-Saint-Maclou may have started up as early as 1164. In 1696, the leper hospital was closed down. In 1777, after a branch of the Somme was blocked at Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, the authorities decided to build a canal from Abbeville to the estuary at Saint Valery. Work began in 1786 but hit problems in 1793 with the installation of the sluice-gates in the muddy sub-strata and above all, the reaction of the local farmers, raising sheep and cattle on the salt-marshes. Work resumed under the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, who wanted Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme as a war-port. In 1810, Spanish prisoners worked on the terracing and the maritime canal was inaugurated in 1827. In 1840, Laviers took the name of Grand-Laviers and from 1845 to 1850, the railway line from Abbeville to Étaples was built, a section of the Paris – Boulogne line. The river bed of the Somme was filled and moved to accommodate the construction. The town was comparatively safe…

Geography

The commune is situated on the D40 road, some northwest of Abbeville, by the banks of the canalised river Somme. The ancient forests of Abbeville remain as woods on the hills to the west of the village.

Most-observed species

• Sea trout, Brown trout

  Salmo trutta Linnaeus, 1758 · Animalia
  9,050
• Black-headed Gull

  Chroicocephalus ridibundus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,367
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,251
• Mute Swan

  Cygnus olor (J.F.Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  2,081
• Great Cormorant/European Shag

  Phalacrocorax carbo (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,060
• Little Egret/Western Reef-Heron

  Egretta garzetta (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,033
• Eurasian Coot

  Fulica atra Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,980
• Common Shelduck

  Tadorna tadorna (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,968

Most recent

• M 2.7 — 2008-11-26
  France
• M 3 — 2008-11-19
  3 km NNW of Varengeville-sur-Mer, France
• M 3.1 — 2008-11-18
  13 km NW of Varengeville-sur-Mer, France
• M 3 — 2008-11-18
  4 km NW of Varengeville-sur-Mer, France
• M 3.1 — 2008-11-18
  13 km NW of Varengeville-sur-Mer, France
• M 3.1 — 2005-06-01
  3 km N of Grandvilliers, France