2023-07-20 16:00:00
Straddling the Brussels-Charleroi canal, rue Arthur Brancart, in the hamlet of Fauquez (Ittre) extends avenue des Tilleuls to form the arm towards rue Maurice Brancart and chemin du Charly des Prés, 800 meters further on.
Particularity of this street formerly called Saint-Michel, this road appendix forming a “Y”. Between the two branches of the “Y” sits the bust of Arthur Brancart. Born June 13, 1870 in Thulin (Hainaut) and died July 17, 1934 in Virginal, the latter was a master glassmaker. In 1902, he took over the management of the Verreries de Fauquez, founded a little earlier by Henri Michotte. It is to Arthur Brancart that we owe the invention of marble on the borders of the First World War. Marbrite is an opacified and colored glass in the mass that imitates marble. This material was widely used in art deco style constructions. Its success was worldwide in the first part of the 20th century and the Sainte-Lutgarde Chapel (here visible in the background in our two before/following photos) – erected overlooking the street in 1928 – was largely endowed with it. It is not for nothing that it was nicknamed the Glass Chapel.
Around the factory located in what was then rue Saint-Michel, an entire workers’ village was born. Schools, shops, a dispensary, a train station, a cinema and even a party hall were built there. The facade of the latter is still there and is a trace of this radiant past, with this phrase “Work well, have fun” still visible when you pass in front of the dilapidated building. A slogan that bears witness to Arthur Brancart’s desire to install his workers and their families in good living conditions.
From 1927, Arthur Brancart’s state of health deteriorated. He handed over the management of the company in 1932 and died in 1934. A management committee made up of his sons, Robert, Yvon, Robert and Raoul and his nephew Claude Locreille succeeded him. Then came the Second World War, which marked the beginning of the factory’s decline. Obsolescence, competition and poor management led to the closure of the marble department in 1964. The “hollow glass” department still survived a little. In 1974, a plastic bottle manufacturing company occupied the premises, until 1981, when all industrial activity in Fauquez ceased.
In the meantime, the bust in honor of Arthur Brancart had been erected and the street renamed in his name.
This episode of our series is produced with the kind collaboration of Echarp (Entente des Cercles d’Histoire et d’Archéologie du Roman Païs) and its secretary Wilfred Burie. Info: www.echarp.be
Sources of this episode: www.lachapelledeverre.be/
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