In 1902, Emile Cassez (1871-1948), General Councillor for the canton of Châteauvillain, founded the first winter agricultural school in France (running from All Saints' Day to the end of February), attached to the Diderot college in Lan-gres, and in 1907 he dreamed up the idea of setting up a "girls' household school". The following year, taking advantage of subsidies obtained by the Haute-Marnais senator Léon Mougeot, he drew up regulations for local authorities wishing to host this new course of study in premises provided with lighting and heating. The first schools opened in Châteauvillain and Montier-en-Der in 1908, and a third in the Château de Bourbonne-les-Bains the following year. Other schools were opened in Nogent, Wassy, Saint-Dizier, Langres and Poissons.
At the end of 1912, the commune of Montigny agreed to open a school in the buildings of a hospital created in 1903 on the Place Charles Cornevin, premises that were unoccupied due to a lack of operating funds. However, the declaration of war in the summer of 1914 led to the closure of all these schools, including the one in Montigny, which was replaced each winter from 1915 to 1920 by a single session in Chaumont for around ten pupils.
On 22 June 1920, the prefect asked the mayor of Montigny to accept the school on a permanent basis, but the mayor did not want to bear the running costs. He wanted to sell the former hospital to the Conseil Général, which would gradually reimburse the large Paris Mutuel subsidy from 1933 onwards, originally granted on the condition that it be used solely as a hospital.
At the time, the training programme included a number of subjects, aimed exclusively at young girls from rural areas: hygiene, horticulture, dairy farming, poultry farming, sewing, cutting, mending, laundry, ironing, caring for the injured and preparing menus.
In 1940, the German army occupied the school and stole the heating pipes and radiators, causing the school to slow down. After the war, however, the premises were refurbished and the school was able to accommodate up to 45 pupils around 1950. By 1956, however, enrolment was declining, despite the fact that the school was modernising its facilities to enable pupils to attend classes for nine months. The following year, the school offered a two-year course and was planning a third.
However, the opening of the Lycée Agricole in Chaumont in 1967 at the instigation of Edgar Pisani, followed by the Collège Agricole in Fayl-Billot two years later, sounded the death knell for the école ménagère in Montigny, which closed its doors for good in 1973. The buildings are currently owned by the social housing provider AMARIS.
L’ancienne école ménagère de Montigny-le-Roi
