Bazenville

Bazenville
Bazenville
Commune
	An old barn in Bazenville
	Coat of arms
	Location of Bazenville
	Bazenville Bazenville
	Coordinates: 49°18′13″N 0°35′06″W / 49.3036°N 0.585°W
Country	France
Region	Normandy
Department	Calvados
Arrondissement	Bayeux
Canton	Courseulles-sur-Mer
Intercommunality	Seulles Terre et Mer
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Marcel Dubois
Area 1	4.07 km2 (1.57 sq mi)
Population (2021)	142
• Density	35/km2 (90/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	14049 /14480
Elevation	53–67 m (174–220 ft) ; (avg. 30 m or 98 ft)
	1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Bazenville (French pronunciation: [bazɑ̃vil] ^ⓘ) is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region of north-western France.^[3]

Bazenville Airfield was a former World War II Advanced Landing Ground, mostly located outside the commune of Bazenville 1.8 km to the north-east.

The inhabitants of the commune are known as Bazenvillais or Bazenvillaises.^[4]

Geography

Bazenville is located some 6 km east by north-east of Bayeux and 4 km south by south-east of Arromanches-les-Bains. Access to the commune is by the D87 road from Ryes in the north-west which passes through the commune south of the village and continues south-east to Villiers-le-Sec. The D112 from Sommervieu to Crépon forms the north-western border of the commune. Apart from the village there is the hamlet of Les Noyaux. There is a British Military Cemetery in the west of the commune on the D87. The commune is entirely farmland.^[5]^[6]

Toponymy

Bazonille is mentioned as Basonni villa in 875.

Bazenville appears as Bazanville on the 1750 Cassini Map^[7] and as Bazan ville on the 1790 version.^[8]

History

Bazenville was liberated on the same day as the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944. An interim Canadian aerodrome (referred to as Bazenville Airfield, Advanced Landing Ground B-2 Bazenville, or B-2 Crépon) was built commencing the following night near the commune in a large part of the triangle formed by the Bazenville, Crépon, and Villiers-le-Sec villages.^[9]

It was on this aerodrome that the French ace Pierre Clostermann flew, on 11 June 1944, for the first time in France after his entry into the war in 1942: "All my life I will remember the people of Bazenville the first French to whom I spoke".^[10]

Administration

List of Successive Mayors^[11]

From	To	Name	Party	Position
2001	2005	Pierre Vallerend		Farmer
2005	2026	Marcel Dubois		Retired

Demography

In 2017 the commune had 137 inhabitants.

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1793	381	—
1800	321	−2.42%
1806	411	+4.21%
1821	409	−0.03%
1831	371	−0.97%
1836	370	−0.05%
1841	361	−0.49%
1846	362	+0.06%
1851	338	−1.36%
1856	328	−0.60%
1861	316	−0.74%
1866	302	−0.90%
1872	291	−0.62%
1876	283	−0.69%
1881	272	−0.79%
1886	251	−1.59%
1891	229	−1.82%
1896	228	−0.09%

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1901	216	−1.08%
1906	200	−1.53%
1911	181	−1.98%
1921	146	−2.13%
1926	153	+0.94%
1931	173	+2.49%
1936	172	−0.12%
1946	192	+1.11%
1954	177	−1.01%
1962	196	+1.28%
1968	177	−1.69%
1975	149	−2.43%
1982	164	+1.38%
1990	145	−1.53%
1999	144	−0.08%
2007	146	+0.17%
2012	145	−0.14%
2017	137	−1.13%

Source: EHESS^[12] and INSEE^[13]

Culture and heritage

Civil heritage

A Commemorative plaque remembering the site of the airfield where Pierre Clostermann arrived on 11 June 1944.

The commune has many buildings and sites that are registered as historical monuments:

A Farmhouse at Rue des Alliés (1759)^[14]
A Tradesman's house at Rue des Cordiers (19th century)^[15]
The Bazenville Farmhouse at Rue de l'Eglise (17th century)^[16]
A House at Rue de l'Eglise (18th century)^[17]
A Notable's House at Rue de l'Eglise (18th century)^[18]
The Chateau of Bazenville at Rue de la Grotte (17th century)^[19]
The Manor of Tournebu at Rue des Noyaux (17th century)^[20]
A Worker's House at Route de Villiers-le-Sec (19th century)^[21]
The Chateau de la Croix at Route de Villiers-le-Sec (1727)^[22]
The British Cemetery of Ryes (20th century).^[23] The cemetery contains 979 graves: 630 British, 21 Canadians, one Australian, one Pole, and 326 Germans.
The War Memorial (1929)^[24]
The Grotto of Lourdes (1947)^[25]
Bazenville Village (Ancient times)^[26]
Houses (17th-19th century)^[27]

Religious heritage

The commune has several religious buildings and sites that are registered as historical monuments:

A Presbytery at Rue de l'Eglise (19th century)^[28]
The Parish Church of Saint-Martin at le Bourg (13th century)^[29]^[30] The Church contains a large number of objects which are registered as historical objects.^[29]^[30]