Manoir de Douville, Manor estate in Mandeville-en-Bessin, France

Manoir de Douville is a former fortified residence in Mandeville-en-Bessin, with farm buildings and the manor house set without a break around a square courtyard. The house was largely built in the 17th century, while its tower and cellars are older. The grey stone walls, steep dark slate roof, tall chimney and projecting bay with a window face the courtyard.

Around 1060 most of Tessy belonged to the Lièvres domain of Alvérède le Géant, who gave it to the monks of Saint-Vigor de Bayeux. The land was raised to a barony and granted in 1594 to Pierre Hélyes, whose ancestor had been ennobled by Charles VII in 1461. In 1693 Marie Madeleine Hélyes married Guillaume Desson, seigneur de Douville, and the manor of Tessy took the name Douville; the new logis was built then, the old one rented to the farmer.

The name Douville replaced that of Tessy after Marie Madeleine Hélyes married Guillaume Desson, seigneur de Douville, in 1693. The estate stayed with the Desson family until the second half of the 18th century, when Joseph-François Desson sold it in 1763 to Léonord-Charles Radulph, lieutenant général de police of Caen.

The manor stands 2 km east-northeast of the Notre-Dame church of Mandeville-en-Bessin, reached via the D29 between Mosles and Trévières. The buildings and farmyard are private working property, so view them from the road rather than entering the courtyard. The chalky Bessin plateau is exposed to wind and rain; bring weatherproof clothing.

The tower and cellars predate the 17th-century house. The estate passed to Guillaume Desson, lord of Douville, through his 1693 marriage to Marie Madeleine Hélyes, granddaughter of Raulline d'Hermerel and Richard Hélyes; the manor of Tessy then took the name Douville. The farm buildings and dwelling form an unbroken ring around a square courtyard.