La conserverie Le Gall de Loctudy, des conserves de sardines à la conservation d’un patrimoine

Abstract

The Le Gall canning factory, located at Loctudy in the Finistère department, produced tinned sardines and other fish and shellfish-based preparations. The factory is characteristic of an activity which developed in the second half of the nineteenth century thanks to the invention of ‘appertization’, named after Nicolas Appert (1749-1841), a French confectioner who invented the canning process. The Le Gall canning factory is exceptionally well preserved today as it closed down in 1954 and had been little affected by modernisation. The machines and tools are ‘frozen’ on the site, so to speak, and allow us to trace the production lines and to understand some of the technological aspects of the canning industry. Faced with the progressive dilapidation of the disused building, the architect in charge of French historic buildings in the Finistère department and the regional conservation services of the Ministry of Culture in Brittany have helped the owners in a restoration and interpretation project for the factory and its machines. This project could not have been carried out had the factory building, along with the owner’s house, not been listed (‘classés’) in 2016 as historic monuments. The same year all the tools, machines and movable equipment linked with the activity of the canning factory were also given statutory protection. Since then, the owners of the factory have sold it to the Loctudy local authorities which are carrying out a remarkable restoration and museographical project, under the auspices of a heritage architect, in order to open both the factory and the house to the public in 2020. The interpretation will highlight both the tangible and the intangible heritage of the place.

Keywords

• cannery
• Finistère
• Loctudy
• Brittany
• industrial heritage
• intangible cultural heritage