Located in the department of Sarthe 20 minutes from Le Mans, Challes is a small French town that covers 2,583 km². Its inhabitants: the challois and the challoises.
- Challes to the Origins:
- Prehistoric men left some traces of their activity in the town.
- Thus, 3.5 km from the village, on the road to Surfonds, in a wood was a dolmen, destroyed shortly after the 39-45 war, and which, according to legend, began to turn at the time of Midnight Mass. It consisted of a table balanced on a single support.
- A few discoveries of carved flint objects also allow us to imagine that men lived here: biface on the banks of the Hune, Mousterian end scraper at La Galbrunière and especially at the ford of the Aune, many points of Neolithic arrows, scrapers and end scrapers.
- The Gallo-Roman presence is not attested by any tangible vestige. However, certain place names suggest such a presence. In addition, the town is crossed by the Roman road called Saturnacensis, linking Le Mans to Orléans.
- Challes medieval and modern:
- Discovery of Merovingian limestone sarcophagi.
- During the restoration work on the church, several sarcophagi were unearthed. We can therefore think that a necropolis existed and probably also a rudimentary habitat.
- After "the year 1000", the old texts allow us to know a few names: Joscelin de Challes in 1237, Nicolas de Challes in 1247 and in 1252 Hugues du Coudray. It is precisely to this Romanesque period that the construction of the first church dates back, smaller than the one that exists today.
- There are also other constructions from the end of the Middle Ages. Thus at a place called La Chapelière we can identify before the current buildings a fortified site with water moats. At Le Vivier, well before the current buildings, we have a description of a small castle with a corner turret and the presence of a chapel. It is in this place that the various lords of Challes resided for a long time.
- The Renaissance was undoubtedly a prosperous period for Challes, at least for part of the population. This translates into a series of large-scale constructions such as the church which takes on its current appearance.
- Many other constructions were built at the same time. A discovery of a silver coin of Henry III (1583) in a house in Villenettes suggests that some current houses have much older origins. In addition, certain localities such as La Chapelière, Le Petit Coudray or Le Grand Coudray are former seigniorial mansions, seats of agricultural exploitation and political, economic and judicial power.
- Under the Ancien Régime (17th and 18th centuries) many written documents allow us to imagine the living conditions of the population (approximately 800 inhabitants).
- In 1760, in Challes there were two thirds of peasants for one third of non-peasants. Among the peasants there are very rich laborers and, conversely, very poor day labourers. Among the non-peasants we can enumerate traditional artisans (butcher, baker, restaurateur, wheelwright, roofer, granary). And in addition, about 20% of weavers or weavers who worked flax or hemp. There were also three wheat mills (in the village, in Champion, in Bégault) and one for paper (La Sauvagère). On the other hand, changes occur at the level of land ownership through the sale of national property confiscated from the four noble owners and the nine ecclesiastical owners.
- Contemporary times:
- The 19th and 20th centuries brought a number of changes to the town. Regarding town planning, the cemetery was moved from the church square to the Surfonds road and a few "bourgeois" houses were built in the main street.
- On the economic level, traditional craftsmanship is maintained and we are even witnessing the creation of two additional activities with a horsehair treatment workshop and a tannery. The creation of two schools, the installation of a tramway and railway line, the mechanization of the countryside and the arrival of electricity undoubtedly initiated the beginning of modernization.
