Private property, buildings visible from the outside
In 1822, the Ronflette brothers founded a hardware company operating three sites near La Goutelle, including the L'Espérance factory. After several owners, the factory was reoriented towards the automobile industry after the Great War, equipped with a 7-tonne rammer, then taken over in 1980 by Établissements Wiart-Autier after the company was liquidated.
The 11 m² site, organized around a courtyard, includes forge workshops, a riveted steel-framed machine room, two-storey concrete offices and pattern shops. The workforce reached 696 employees in 225, before falling to 1974 in 130.
We speak French