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Flag of Héron - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 18 January 2006
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The municipality of Héron (4,530 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 3,838 ha; municipal website) is located in Hesbaye near the valley of Meuse, 10 km west of Huy and 25 km north-east of Namur. The municipality of Hé was established in 1976 as the merger of the former municipalities of Héron, Couthuin, Lavoir and Waret-l'Évêque.
Héron is known for its Roman tumulus, dated to the 1st-2ne centuries. This is a square grave supported by wooden planks and protected by a conic heap
of earth (the tumulus proper), which was progressively colonized by
vegetation. The ashes of the dead were placed into a funerary urn
surrounded by earthenware, glassware and bronze artefacts.
The architect from Huy Jean-Lambert Blandot (1835-1885) designed the
former town hall of Héron in 1866. The building includes two
classrooms (one for the boys and one for the girls), the court of first
instance (four rooms) and the flats of the schoolmaster and the
schoolmistress (six and four rooms, respectively). Blandot specialized
in the design of municipal schools and published a book of scale maps
of schools, sponsored by the Ministry of Education. He was commissioned
by the Belgian govenment to design a "model class", which was shown at
the Philadelphia International Education Exhibition.
The hamlet of Boingt was in the past the seat of a feudal court, whose
remain is the Farm of Porte-Rouge. The three patron saints of
Boingt are the Three Saint Sisters Bertille, Eutropie and Geneviève.
Couthuin is famous for its building stone, once extracted in the
quarries of Longpré (today in the municipality of Wanze) and Couthuin. The white stone is called "florid limestone" because it includes
several fossil shells.
The isolated hamlet of Marsinne has three farms known as among the
oldest in Hesbaye (16th-17th centuries). In the 1éth century, this
domain belonged to the Notre-Dame church in Huy and was known as la
Derlière de Marsinne, probably referring to the local clay called
derle.
On 1 September 1830, King William I granted by Royal Decree to the John Cockerill company, from Seraing, the concession for the iron mines
located in the municipalities of Couthuin, Lavoir and Huccorgne (today
in Wanze), that is an area of 503 bonniers and 21 perches, c. 450
ha. The aim of the Decree was to boost the development of big
industrial companies for the extraction of ore. The concession was
split into the concession des Propriétaires de la Surface (Couthuin
and Bas-Oha, today in Wanze) and the concession des Maîtres de Forges
(Huccorgne and Lavoir).
Lead was also extracted in the hamlet of Roua, where remains of the
mine are still visible. The first shaft was opened in 1835, with three
lateral galleries, two big sheds for housing the carts and horses, and
a forge. Exploitation started in 1849 and the ore was carried to the
mill of Tramaka-Seilles. Water started to flood the galleries in 1874
and the mine was closed the next year.
The hamlet of Surlemez has preserved its traditional carnival's fire
set up by witches.
Lavoir is known for its picturesque chapel built on the top of a hill.
The Farm of Ver, formerly known as the Cense of Verve, belonged to the
abbey of Floreffe since the 12th century; it was purchased by two canons at the end of the 18th century. Its former cowshed, with a
roof structure from the 12th century, is today an art gallery.
Louis Tinson, known as the thief of Porte-Rouge, was hung near the farm
of Ver in 1781, according to a story reported by M. Baron. On Saturday
17 November 1781, Louis Tinson drank too much at Joseph's pub in Boingt
with his buddy Antoine. The same night, two cows were stolen in the
Farm of Porte-Rouge. The cops followed the footsteps and arrested
Tinson, who had hidden in the wood of Bolette with the cows. The court
of Boingt sentenced him to death.
The mill of Ferrières, known since the 11th century, was rebuilt in the
17th century on the brook Hérédia. There were in the past limestone
quarries and iron mines in Lavoir, whose name is said to come from
lavatorium, colloquially laveu, the place where washing takes
place. In French, a lavoir is a washing-place or a washhouse. Iron
was indeed washed in Lavoir in big tanks set up near the brook.
Waret-l'Évêque has kept a square well from the 19th century. The well is made of four rectangular limestone flagstones rang with iron and has kept its wooden arm and its iron pulley.
Ivan Sache, 18 January 2006
The flag of Héron is quartered red-white-white-blue.
According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones [w2v03], the flag, adopted on 28 December 2001 by the Municipal Council, is prescribed by a Decree issued on 15 July 2003 by the Executive of the French Community .
The flag is based on the municipal arms of Héron. In the arms, the
fourth quarter is charged with a gold miner's pickaxe and a scythe
crossed in saltire.
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 18 January 2006
