built in the village in 1906. The Prince-Bishop of Basel, Johann Franz von Schönau-Zell (Bishop 1651-1656), had a blast furnace built at La Reuchenette in 1654. In 1693 he gave the furnace as a fief to Chemilleret family, who held it until the death of their last heir in 1756. By 1782 the site included an ironworks, a house, an inn. After the French invasion, it was declared a national treasure and the feudal ownership was abolished. The Société des forges d'Undervelier took over operation of the site until 1867, when it closed. The Biel-Les Convers railway opened in 1874 and encouraged industrial and population growth. The lime and cement factory in Rondchâtel (1874), the wood pulp plant at Biberist (1882) and a branch of the Rondchâtel cement factory in La Reuchenette (today Ciments Vigier SA) all contributed to the prosperity of the municipality. The watch manufacturer Dreyfus Frères SA of Biel opened a branch company in 1903 in Péry. This company, called Péry Watch, did not survive the financial crisis of the 1930s. The building was converted in 1934 into a typewriter ribbon, stencils and carbon paper factory under the name Carfa SA. Carfa remained in operation until 2003. In 2005, just over half of all jobs in the municipality were in manufacturing. On 1 January 2015 the former municipalities of Péry and La Heutte merged to form the new municipality of Péry-La Heutte. Geography Before the merger, Péry had a total area of . Of this area, or 22.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 66.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 9.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.6% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.3% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 2.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.2%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 3.2% of the area Out of the forested land, 63.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.1% is used for growing crops and 6.5% is pastures and 13.0% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. It lies on the eastern end of the Saint-Imier valley and includes the villages