Originally, woods covered the entire valley bottom, with occasional clearings resulting from fires or from the meandering river getting diverted or overflowing. Large herbivorous animals such as bison and aurochs then came to graze in these clearings. People further cleared this original habitat to gather wood or develop livestock. Since then, these areas have been exploited continuously, peaking in the 18th and 19th centuries, when they were used for all sorts of cottage industries. People used to cut the reeds and rushes to make thatch for roofing and fences and chair seats, as well as fodder and litter for livestock. Another valued resource was wood, with willow ("boursettes") and alder ("anos") used for wickerwork, in which baskets are plaited and woven using thin, flexible stalks, but also as firewood. Later, marsh exploitation stepped up further with the planting of poplars to produce large quantities of timber for industry. Natural meadows used for grazing livestock and hay then had to be re-sown. They are still used to this day for grazing and hay. The soil has been enriched with the use of fertilizer and meadows have been drained by ditches dug out in the 1950s.
description image Pastureland on Glisy Marsh, early 20th century - Glisy Church seen from the marsh, 1911 - Departmental archives - Somme Department Council
MARSHLAND KID
El' vatcher (The cowherd)
"Here we have always grazed the cows. I get the impression that they love the rich green grass of the marsh!" One day my grandfather told me about the cowherd the village used to employ. Every morning, he would run through the village streets, blowing a trumpet, not for fun but to let the villagers know it was time to bring out their livestock. The cowherd would round them up and take them down to graze in the marsh. The more livestock he took, the more he was paid. I love the idea of common land: it was very useful for the most destitute who did not have their own pastureland. In the evening, the cowherd would bring the cows back to the village, blowing his trumpet again to let the villagers know he was back. I would have loved that job, because you get to spend the day in the marsh, it’d be a dream come true for me!