in the mountains. In 1961, during the full season from September to March, 60 workmen were employed in the plant. During the dead season some of them would be laid off, and the permanent ones work on organising the stock and outside construction jobs. Later, the ovens were put back in the quarry. A drying system made it possible to process very fine and humid matter and to improve production (150 tons of mortar per day in 1966). Economic and social history Like everywhere else, many people worked in the fields. Cereal production mainly, but also cattle and pigs, kept day workers busy, hiring out their hands to this farmer or that, while their wives and children look after their own thin herds on the common wetlands. But Écouché also uses the surrounding waterways to develop industrial activities. In 1723, some mills produced ratteen or Ecouché sheets, much valued. A factory producing large sheets in the fashion of Lisieux, bought mainly by merchants from Falaise who take them to Brittany, employed 150 workers in 1789; but only about 50 in 1809. In addition, local industry was producing kerchiefs and Siamese calico. In 1819, Richard-Lenoir set up an establishment with 40 looms employing 63 workers producing 7 metres of quilting and 48 of bombazine per day. They also made sackcloth, called . According to Chrétien, in 1842 they were producing four types of fabric: farmers' sheets and Cadiz sheets made from local wool were supplied to the cantons of Briouze and Putanges and the region around Domfront; sheets from wool and cotton striped in various colours, called Saint-Lô; and a coloured fabric on cotton thread, called African, which adorned the countrywomen of the cantons of Ecouché, Briouze, Carrouges, Mortrée, Argentan and Trun. Chrétien mentions a mechanical spinning-mill employing 40 men, 20 children and 5 spinsters, plus 3 tanneries and 2 tawers (leather-dressers). These products were offered for sale in Great Hall in the Market Place. The people of Écouché are business-minded and their pugnacity, well known in the region, earned them some nicknames considered not very flattering. The rivalry between the bell towers led the people of Argentan to say: "From Écouché comes neither fair wind (stench of tanneries) nor fair person (sharp-nosed in business)." World War II During World War II Écouché's buildings and homes suffered 15% heavy damage from aerial bombing and street fighting during the liberation. Most of