Villaines-la-Juhel

Villaines-la-Juhel lies in the uplands of northern Maine, where a medieval keep stood above the settlement. The town's name recalls Juhel of Mayenne, to whom the land was granted in the twelfth century. During the Hundred Years' War English forces seized the town in 1420 and returned in 1446. In later centuries the countryside supplied flax and hemp for textile production in Mayenne and Alençon, linking this small market centre to the linen manufacture of the wider region.