The old paper mill
In 1641, Philippe Gautier, a paper trader, leased the wheat mill of La Courade to the monks of the abbey of La Couronne to transform it into a paper mill. Quality paper is produced there and exported to Holland.
In 1735 a group of financiers from Paris, whose main shareholders are Respinges-Duponty and Henry, bought the rights to the mill. They obtained the Royal Manufacture label from the King's government on the condition of adding around 50 mills in Angoumois. 10 years later, the objective was not reached and the Manufacture Royale label was withdrawn from them.
Henry continues the adventure alone. In 1776, one of his descendants, Henry-Villarmain, both a shrewd trader and a skillful technician, introduced to La Courade the first “Dutch” pile equipped with a knife cylinder which produced more and better pulp than the traditional "wooden mallet stack". He did excellent business and invested his profits in the beautification of the estate by building an imposing mansion.
In 1836 the first paper machine was installed. La Courade then enters the industrial era. It reached its peak around 1850 when nearly 150 people worked there. The papers produced received high regard at several exhibitions.
From 1875, for lack of additional investment, activity gradually declined. The production became almost artisanal.
In 1900, a fire destroyed the machines room. Compensated by the insurance, Georges Henry La Courade (the family had in fact meanwhile added the particle La Courade to their surname!) chose to invest in a cardboard making machine and the installation of a building, housing an hydro-electric turbine. Production began in 1904 but the war put an end to it. La Courade site was then requisitioned by the Army communications services which withdrew to Angoulême.
In 1920, Georges Henry, who had become too old, once again leased the factory. Several tenants followed one another. The cardboard produced is for example used in the interior padding of the doors of the early 2CV.
In 1938, Jean-Baptiste Guillaud took over the operation of the cardboard factory. At the height of activity, the factory employed 75 people who lived and worked on site. In 1953, he acquired the entire property but the activity of the factory ceased after his death in 1970. His descendants, the Doré-Régnier families, continue to manage the Moulin de la Courad at today's date.
The English park
The Moulin de La Courade has a park "à l'anglaise" of 2 hectares, typical of the 19th century. From the ornamental pool and its fountain, take the path in the shade of century-old and majestic trees (magnolias, sequoias, hornbeams, lime trees, yews, plane trees, box trees, chestnut trees, Lebanon and Atlas cedars, umbrella pine) which leads to a romantic "folly" hidden from view and accessible by a small snail shaped spiralling path lined on either side by hedged vegetation...
The Boëme canal, bordered by plane trees, crosses the park.
The main courtyard and the château
The courtyard, planted with rows of lime trees and chestnut trees, opens onto the U-shaped buildings. To the north those used for drying and processing cardboard (rolling, cutting, etc.). To the west, the pulp production site which is accessed by a bridge which crosses the Boëme canal and which is the oldest building. To the south, the said château, destroyed by fire in 1842 and rebuilt in the Second Empire style. It is reminiscent of certain Parisian mansions of the same period and is called locally "le petit Elysée Charentais". It is flanked to the west by a stone building used for housing workers and to the east by an old chapel and agricultural buildings (stable, hayloft).