Hulluch

An ex-coalmining town, now a farming commune, situated some 4 miles north of Lens, at the junction of the D947 and the D39 roads.
The chapter of Lens mentions Huluce in 1070 in a charter of Eustache de Boulogne. St Vaast called it Huluz in 1098, by 1136 it was written Hulut and Hullut 1180. in 1202 Huluch and Huluc. In 1303, Hulus on a seal affixed to a document and finally Hulluch from 1388, (confirmed again in 1429 by archives of Artois. It is pronounced Ooloo, as the final ch is not pronounced.
The town already existed in the Gallo-Roman era. Some pottery from this period has been found while digging the basement of a house near the old Roman road.
Originally inhabited by the Morins, the enemy of Julius Caesar, it was occupied by the Franks well before the 10th century. The village was chosen as a Christian mission during the 4th and 5th centuries.
An early seigneur built a simple castle with a donjon and outbuildings surrounded by fences and ditches. Around the year 1300, it is surrounded by stone walls, battlements, towers and a drawbridge. This medieval castle was burned, along with the village, by the Flemish in 1303, then bombarded by the Spanish. The succession of battles and invasions led to its demise, unable to withstand the tests of time andwars. Rebuilt as a chateau by Baron de Bertoult, during the reign of Louis XIV, the chateau was richly decorated and surrounded by a beautiful park. Unfortunately, the chateau was blown up by the Germans at the outset of World War I, but afterwards replaced by a residential district, called "Clos du Chateau" to perpetuate the memory of the chateau.

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