TRAIL OF TEXTILE

The textile adventure in La Bresse continues today with TGL Fabrics Gisèle. Originating in the Vosges Mountains, where she was born in 1856, this company now has more than 80 employees spread over several weaving and manufacturing sites. In the Ecorces factory, built in 1998, state-of-the-art industrial technologies enable the group to be one of the European leaders in the manufacture of household linen.

From this magnificent natural promontory of the Beuty Rocks, we can better understand how the textile industry developed in La Bresse: slopes well exposed for agriculture, cradle of the first looms, wood and granite to build, and streams of water sources.

At the beginning of the 19th century, although some tasks were still carried out on farms, the work was gradually concentrated in workshops and then on real "industrial isolates". Around the factory, the place of production, the places of daily life are set up: workers' housing and gardens, the director's house, but also sometimes school, nursery or village hall. The district of Grands Viaux testifies to it.

The history of textiles follows the course of the water used in the Vosges mountains since the Middle Ages as a source of energy. By an ingenious system of valves, channels and penstocks, the water of the rivers is diverted to enable him to operate a water wheel or a turbine. These will result in a series of mechanisms and operate machinery spinning and weaving. The water used is then returned without damage to the river.

In the mountains, farmers also work with wood and are sometimes weavers. Since the Middle Ages, some make linens or hemp, thanks to the wooden loom, manufactured and nstalled on site, in the farm. Also, when cotton appears in the second half of the 18th century, their know-how is already great. A renowned textile tradition is born in the heart of the Vosges mountains.

The textile business has experienced its dramas. One of the most striking remains the destruction of 20 of the 23 production sites in November 1944. The routed German army practices the policy of scorched earth and burns many buildings. The whole city is practically destroyed. The reconstruction period that followed then shaped the town today.