It is of a very different type from that of the Capuchins: it is a hexagonal dovecote on pillars; its top was surmounted by a framed pinnacle. Probably to consolidate it, the lower part had been filled to relieve the load on the stone pillars, adorned at the top with a ring, the capel, which prevented rodents from accessing the aviary.
Thanks to a deed (kept at AD 47) drawn up in 1659 by Fréron, a notary in Clairac, we know who the owner was. It was M. de Morely de Choisy; this noble family, related to Nicolas Fouquet, owned several properties in and around Clairac, such as the Bourbon property in Nicole. With M. de Bar de Mauzac, he was the owner of the mill of Longueville, near which our dovecote was located. The reading of this notarial deed gives us exciting details about the construction :
« Le 15 octobre 1659, l’avocat Pomarède s’engage à faire bâtir les piliers, Bon se chargeant de la charpente jusqu’au toit ; à cet effet, il fournira tout le bois, tant du corps du pigeonnier et poutres que couvert ; il sera tenu de le carrer et n’emploiera que du matériau bon et marchand, et non gâté, de bon chêne et les poutres de la même force et essence que celle du pigeonnier de Monsieur de Choisy qui est dans le jardin près de la rivière Lot, et plus fort s’il se peut.
Bon devra remettre son ouvrage terminé en janvier prochain, moyennant la somme de 400 livres payables de la façon qui suit : 150 livres le 8 novembre, 150 livres le 8 décembre, et 100 livres après la remise de l’ouvrage.
Le bailleur devra fournir deux pièces de bois qu’il a en sa métairie de La Chapelle et jusqu’à 15 tombereaux pour charger le bois, plus 500 clous et lattes. »
There is no longer a dovecote on pillars in Clairac today, so Mr Pomarède's dovecote has disappeared; the aforementioned La Chapelle farmhouse has also disappeared: it was on the left bank, between Les Auxides and Poudepé.
The construction of the dovecotes was subject to rights, as can be seen in an extract from the inventory of Moyse Lartigue's possessions, drawn up in 1688, for his property at Roussannes : « contrat portant permission de bâtir un pigeonnier à piliers pour moi Moyse Lartigue sous le cens et rente annuelle de quatre sols au seigneur-abbé de Clairac, du trentième janvier mil six cent septente. »
Thanks to Justus Cobet, a Frankfurt bookseller descended from a Clairacaise family, we have a photograph of it during a visit he made in 1965 to his friend Claude Martin.
To imagine today what this dovecote was, you have to travel a few kilometres to Colleignes where a similar model remains – in very poor condition – in La Tour-de-Rance, property of the INRA (French National Institute for Agricultural Research).
Son of Louis Gabriel Castex and Jeanne Malgrat, from Saint-Antoine-de-Ficalba, born in Agen, Fernand Castex (1904-1972) became Clairacais by his marriage in 1928 to Charlotte Cazenille, daughter of the hardware store of the Place Serres. After a year spent in Agen, they moved to Clairac, boulevard des Ormeaux. Sent to the health services in Alsace, when war was declared, he later joined the Resistance, working with Messrs Bize, Faget, Pons. After obtaining a diploma in radio-electrics, he opened a shop on Place Viçose, then rue Jean-Jaurès. It was in the 1950s that he began to paint: from then on, he produced a number of drawings, paintings, engravings… He illustrated certain books, such as one by Jean Caubet on Clairac. A series of his drawings by Clairac was even used to decorate plates that are now highly sought-after.
