Le Quesnoy

Le Quesnoy (French pronunciation: [lə kenwa]; Picard: L' Kénoé) is a commune and small town in the east of the Nord department of northern France. It was part of the historical province of French Hainaut. It is known for its fortifications, dating from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. It had a significant shoemaking industry before the late 1940s, followed by a chemical factory and dairy, giving way to its weekly market, tourism, local commuting to elsewhere such as Valenciennes and local shops.

Le Quesnoy's inhabitants are known as Quercitains.

The town of Le Quesnoy did not experience much change during the Industrial Revolution. Unlike the neighboring towns of Valenciennes or Maubeuge, iron/steel works did not take hold. The lack of wealth underground and of a major transportation route partly explains this. The authorities, however, took note of this weakness and proposed the Ecaillon canal from Sambre to Scheldt; considered but abandoned because of low water yield in the forest of Mormal.

Shoemaking was a major local industry until at least 1945, when a hundred shoemakers were still identifiable. Shoemakers worked at home for a local company (now Désiré Tanis) in rue du Petit Valenciennes in a kind of cottage industry. A glassmaking factory installed near the railway track on the site of the former Intermarché collapsed after World War I. In the Bellevue district, the remains of a factory attest to the presence of a former pottery factory.

The post-war boom or 'trentes glorieuses' saw industrial development on the outskirts of the town, including the chemical company (Cofradec) and food (Laiterie des 4 Cantons) inaugurated by Charles de Gaulle in 1959.

Today, economic activity is mainly based on tourism and local shops. The town with its ramparts, castle ponds and history (including the Revolutionary Armed bivouac and the New Zealanders Monument on the border of Valenciennes) are major attractions. Le Quesnoy is home to many small traders and has a trading area of more than respectable size for a town of less than 5,000 people. The closure of industrial enterprises (Cofradec, Duarte, dairy products) and services (transport) remains problematic, although there have been some new sources of work such as with the Emig company.

The town holds a weekly market on Friday mornings.

Le Quesnoy is first attested in forms accompanied by the Latinized name of its alleged founder, called Haymon or Aymond: Haymon Quercitum (from the Latin quercus, "oak", a Latin term never imposed in Gaul). It appeared as Caisnetum in romanized charters to try to match the Picard language of the 11th to 14th century and as Haismont-Caisnoit, Le Kaisnoit, Le Caisnoy, Caisnoit and Quesnoyt in property titles of the same period (surveys of Hainaut of Cambrai, and Condé).