Emmanuel Perrin will publish “The little dictionary of the history of Creil” with a release planned for the Creil book fair in November 2025. We know he is passionate about history, he has also made it his profession since he is a professor of this subject. He who arrived in Creil in the 2000s for professional reasons has fully invested himself in the local life of his town.
Deeply ecologist, advocating the expected development of soft roads and bicycle travel, Emmanuel Perrin, today a municipal councilor and sitting in the Creil-Sud-Oise agglomeration, looks at the history of this good old town of Creil. There are things to say about this town whose first traces of medieval life presage a thriving economic life.
Remember where we come from to know where we are going. Emmanuel Perrin could have made this maxim his own.
The birth of a section on the web
Passionate about history in general and the history of Creil in particular, it was first on social networks that the general public was able to discover one of the facets of his work as a historian. He regularly posts a topic or a video dealing with a place, a subject, a neighborhood.
From there to making a synthesis grouped together in a work, there was only one step. This is the work that Emmanuel Perrin is currently carrying out.
Its objective: to popularize the history of Creille, the small and large stories of this city in turn built, massacred, rebuilt, enlarged and developed according to industries, wars, population movements and needs, whether they be emergency or not.
In short, it is the story with a capital H of a town unique in its kind in the department, with a strong industrial past with, which spoils nothing, the crossing of the Oise, the Oise canalized like the called the elders.
A map of the evolution of inhabitants
The idea is also to establish a relationship between construction and the contribution of workers, therefore to highlight a development linked to the industrial activity of the city. Birth of new districts, history of the Creil bridges since there were indeed several, improvement of Saint-Maurice Island until the 1970s (this is less well known in fact). There are things to say.
It is also a work that can serve as a basis for work in the future. Indeed, Emmanuel Perrin has no intention of stopping there. The objective of this work is to serve as a basis for conferences, meetings and debates.
“You have to know what you have done, think about what has been done so far so as not to repeat the same mistakes.” A barely noticeable nod to the Mageo project. The Seine Nord Europe canal. It is not supposed to have an undue impact on the Creille basin, but as the good ecologist that he is, Emmanuel Perrin wants to ask the right questions. The river bed will have to be dug. What will be the impacts? The ancients spoke of the canalized Oise. This is what has already happened in Creil. An increased draft… Already.
A book on the specific history of Creil has not happened for several decades. The reference works, by LG Villeroy and C. Boyer, are studied in detail. There are of course work bases, research and therefore, long hours spent in municipal archives, in libraries full of treasures.
“Some works are very technical, others written in French that are sometimes difficult to decipher, but we should not necessarily take literally everything that is written in black and white. Between the testimonies, the writings, but also the individual research work, we must above all carry out a synthesis of all this data,” explains Emmanuel Perrin philosophically.
This is because before 1960, there was no specific organization which centralized archeology and history in the territory. Everyone worked a little in their own corner and implemented their own method. When we think of Creil, we systematically think of the Oise river. It is quite easy to find the plan of Creil before the embankments profoundly changed the landscape of the right bank.
Place Carnot did not exist
Clearly, Place Carnot did not exist. There was a sort of gap which made navigation particularly difficult in the Middle Ages, with no locks and where freight boats were pulled by horses. “I found archives where it was mentioned that it took several dozen horses to be able to tow a barge against the current. Let us not forget that Creil was above all a port and that a direct road linked Paris via Senlis,” explains the elected historian.
There are so many stories. Bridges, walls, neighborhoods. Ancient bridges passing through the heights of Creil where the first inhabitants settled, the discovery of a 4 m wall during the construction of the current hospital, the treasure of the lock of course between Saint-Leu -of Esserent and Creil, the castle, the abbey whose remains are stored in the municipal archives, in the new premises presented to the general public just a few weeks ago. What can we say about Place Saint-Médard which at the time housed vaulted cellars… So much data!
Make information accessible
“If I am producing this book, it is because there is a real demand. The Creillois are passionate about the history of their city. It is enough to meet the members of different associations, in particular that of Amoi, specialized in industrial heritage, to realize that there is a need for knowledge. Emmanuel Perrin also specifies: “on this point, we must pay tribute to Jean-Claude Villemain, then mayor of Creil, who was the first to do everything possible to ensure that the history of Creil was preserved. The municipal archives are a very good achievement.”
The author is already thinking about what comes next… On the web
For Emmanuel Perrin, this book, even when it is finished, will ultimately only be a first draft. “I think it will evolve on certain subjects, hence the choice of a dictionary,” affirms the author. “For certain periods of Creil’s history, we have collected all possible data, particularly medieval. But for others, there are still gray areas to be clarified. This can only be done through joint work. Alone, we can’t do anything. Of that, I am convinced. Today, I am still looking for certain municipal magazines, original documents, for example. I’m sure a local still has a collection of them. Let us not forget that part of the archives were destroyed.
Then there were the bombings, notably those of the Great War. It was during this period, again, that the bridge was destroyed, destroyed by French engineers to prevent a German advance. Looking at the Gournay district as well, suffice to say that the task is arduous.
Obviously, it is impossible to retrace the entire history of a city here and in a few lines. In this sense, this is why this book will have major importance, a mark for years to come. “One sentence, one piece of information. I want to place particular emphasis on infographics, images and ease of understanding for the reader. I think a good image can replace long speeches. I have the chance to work on the project with Sam Max (Samuel Hennuyer). It is a valuable ally for the visual aspect of the project. He has knowledge of the industrial environment. It’s a serious plus.”
The idea, for the author, is to publish “The little dictionary of the history of Creil”, carried by the publishing houses La ville aux livres, this year. It must be ready for the book fair in November 2025.
A bet that should largely be kept.
People who wish to contribute to this historical work can contact Emmanuel Perrin by writing directly to the city of books: lavilleauxlivres.creil@gmail.com or to the number of this Creilloise publishing house on 06 03 57 94 15 .
