Cornille-Havard is the inheritor of a tradition established at Villedieu-les-Poeles, in Normandy, next to the Mont Saint Michel, since the end of the Middle Ages.

Cornille Havard is one of the rare world specialists in campanology.

The origin of bells is very old. As early as Antiquity, small bells were used, "cattle bells " made up of two curved steel plates and joined by rivets.

The first church bells appeared during the 6^th century. They were first used to announce religious services ; then, they announced all the important events in the life of the city : fires, enemy attacks, royal arrivals, victories...

This small Norman citadel has housed since the Middle Ages a famous center for copper work. The first bell foundry workers came from Lorraine and settled here in the 16^th century. At that time, they exercised a traveling craft.

Each year during the spring, the bell-founders went to the neighboring cities and villages to make bells on the spot, right at the foot of the church tower where they were to be mounted.

Each time they built the furnace to melt the bronze.

The Villedieu workshop : It was built in 1865. This coincides with the commissioning of the Paris-Granville railroad line.
Entirely designed by Adolphe Havard, an engineer graduated from Polytechnical, the workshop has changed little since its construction. The wooden tracks are still used to move pieces weighing several tons. Bronze is melted in a double-arched reverberatory furnace built over a century ago. The copper tools characteristic of Villedieu are still there and the workers reproduce the same movements their elders did, using skills passed on from generations of professionals.