Outstanding Farms

Montignies can boast of hosting some remarkable old farmhouses often classified as heritage.

At no. 34 rue des Écoles, an old long farmhouse, also whitewashed, has Tournai-style windows on the ground floor, while the first floor is lit by bay windows with wooden frames. Particularly well preserved, this building displays a sober treatment and a beautiful legibility of its original functions.

Farm 'Ferme du Marais'

Slightly more imposing outside the village, the main building of the farm   'Ferme du Maris' bears imposing testimony to the same Tournaisian style. It constitutes one of the architectural jewels of the entity. Former dependency of the French abbey of Hasnon, this remarkable quadrangle installed in the heart of its land is a homogeneous whole, dating from 1790 on the arch key of the dovecote porch opening onto a large courtyard. At the back of it, the low double main building has no less than thirteen bays of windows caught between two bands. It has retained its vocation and its authentic appearance. The monks occupied it until 1797, they only abandoned it after the summer of that year, constrained and forced, struck by an expulsion order, their properties sold as national property. This farm is the last in the village to have belonged to the monks, the local population intervening elsewhere so that the monks remain tolerated there. The barns are monumental and their frames real masterpieces.

Ferme du Parc

Close by and just as imposing, the Hénuier-type farm 'Ferme du Parc' has been listed by the Monuments and Sites Commission as a monument since October 1978, and has been in operation for more than 300 years. 

Its bell tower bears the motto "rore et aratro" (by the dew and the plow). Built against the top of the Dender and accompanied by an old water mill built in 1640, this quadrilateral farm built in 1778 once belonged to the abbey of Saint-Denis in Broequeroie. Dominated by the high porch tower, stamped with the arms of Abbot Dom Martin and visible in the distance in the landscape, the various components present a beautiful homogeneity of size and treatment to which the red color of the joinery contributes. Stables, punctuated by doors under an oculus and through skylights, close off the courtyard on two sides, while the traditional classical dwelling, probably built in two stages, and the vast barn remodeled in 1832 occupy the two others.

Surrounded by large meadows which were once the main source of energy (the "green oil"), the production of fodder was used to feed draft and plow horses. Busy in agriculture and the transport of people and goods, these animals needed provisions all year round, only the mares that gave birth went to the pasture with the foals.

Today the park farm is operated by the family of V. Vandevelde and offers a series of farmhouse accommodation. ( the park farm )

The mill 'Moulin du Parc'

The 'Ferme du Parc' adjoins the mill 'Moulin du Parc' The construction of this mill must date back to the 9th century, without being able to confirm an exact date. It has been rebuilt several times, for example in 1640, it was a real communal industry. We talk about it in several charters. 

The oldest outbuildings date back to September 1640, along the Eastern Dender at a place called La Roche. It has all the characteristics of Cistercian-type movements. We consider its foundation by the monks.

A so-called Chièvres charter already speaks of an ordinary mill located in Montigni in 1086. The remains of the park mill still exist and are an integral part of the park farm, a listed monument. 

Farm 'Ferme Moins'

In the rue du Chêne, 20, the Farm 'Ferme Moins' is an example of a closed plan with its whitewashed walls without opening to the outside of the enclosure (the only existing window in the gable is recent). Its dovecote porch and its main building are remarkable. It has attracted many painters and been the subject of several publications. The lintel of the entrance door (1772), at the top of the staircase, as well as the gable of the barn (1796) are vintage.

It is included in the "Old Abbey Farms in Hainaut" edited in 1980 by Brother Nicolas Peltier. The openings have the uprights and the lowered arch made of paired stones, alternating with rows of bricks, with great regularity. The windows are of the Hainaut type, on a threshold incorporated into a stone band. This is a style of the "Tournaisian type" adapted with a certain freedom, sometimes more or less simplified, and the first manifestations of which date back to 1680 and were maintained on farms until around 1790.

The layout of the buildings and annexes, as well as the working methods respect nature and promote self-sufficiency and ecology. The barn is a work of art, its crossbeams are cut from whole oak trunks, the entire frame is pegged with wood, subjected to the forces of the wind like the masts of large ships. The 1st century oven is not very accessible, it was used for baking bread but also probably for drying chicory roots (large millstones were found in the adjoining carousel) which were used for grinding.