Manoir de Mirebeau

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Ministère de la Culture, in French. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Ministère de la Culture; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

History

The manor of Mirebeau is located a short distance from the Beaumont railway station, on the low lands bordering the course of the Sarthe. The ensemble occupied in the 18th century a site delimited to the North and East by a stream which formed a moat and which is still partially in water today. The plan of 1785 shows an ensemble of buildings with a main dwelling in L-shape preceded by a courtyard whose entrance is framed by two blocks of building almost parallel, the one on the left being attached to an oven on the North. To the West are two plots (205 and 206) corresponding doubtless to an orchard and a poultry yard; on plot 205 is indicated in dotted lines the former dovecote demolished in 1776. According to the survey of 1771, the manor comprised the body currently subsisting and, in L-shaped return, outbuildings for animals and sheds, which still subsisted in 1836 according to the land register. Currently, only the dwelling part remains. It is a modest main dwelling of rectangular plan with two bays covered by a roof of average pitch in flat tile. It is flanked to the North by a lean-to annex containing the bakehouse. This body of building is divided into two levels: on the ground floor, a low level covered by a floor originally divided in two: a room for domestic use, separated by a timber-framing partition (now disappeared) from a transverse corridor leading to the bakehouse; on the upper floor, a room under roof space covered by a roof structure with torchis ceiling, separated by a timber-framing partition from a small bedroom surmounted by a half-level loft. Originally, access to the upper floor was by a transverse staircase whose flight probably rose on the other side of the dividing wall, now disappeared along with the body of building in return. It probably opened into the small bedroom by a central door now blocked; after the disappearance of this staircase, which dates to a time before 1771, the timber-framing partition separating the ground-floor room from the corridor was removed and a winding staircase was built on a roughly constructed string wall reaching the threshold of the upper room, a staircase whose opening takes up space from the small bedroom. The dwelling is lit on the ground floor by an opening modified in recent times but which retains its flat lintel for covering, and by a small light with opening frame made in the gable to the left of the fireplace, and on the upper floor by two windows passing-into-dormers whose gable has unfortunately been mutilated. The interior of the house retains, despite some gaps, extensive painted decoration partly obscured by successive whitewash. At the lower level, one can distinguish small decoration of arabesques painted in red ochre on the splay of the window, as well as small marks painted in band on the chimneypiece, alternately yellow and red. On the upper floor, the room is entirely covered with painted decoration. The timber-framing structure and the roof structure with rafters-bearing-tie with underspur, rafters, struts and curved braces are alternately painted in red, yellow and black; the infill of the ceiling of the roof structure is covered with whitewash ornament with branches of trees in red ochre with oak or laurel leaves in yellow ochre or white and small berries applied with a stamp; the fireplace is painted in alternation in red and yellow ochre according to the faces of the moulding of the pilasters and capitals, and the hood, covered with a thick layer of whitewash, appears to be entirely painted with a red and white chequerboard. It does not appear that there was decoration in the small bedroom adjoining.