Granges-sur-Lot is a village that has been inhabited since prehistoric times but appears in recorded history in the C10th when monks from Clairac Abbey established a ‘grangia’ – meaning a chapel and farm combination. The chapel was mentioned in a papal document of 1153. The village was known as Saint-Damien-de-Granges up until 1918.

In 1291, following a decree of Edward I king of England and Duke of Aquitaine, Granges was recreated as a Bastide with a typical rectilinear street layout and protective ramparts. Granges was becoming more established and prosperous when it was significantly affected by the Hundred Years war 1337-1453, lying close to where hostilities first broke out at Saint Sardos. Initially English, the bastide was subject to conquest and reconquest by the French and then the English, including razing the village by the French in the 1360s.

The village was rebuilt between 1454 and 1560 in a period of resurgent prosperity. This was to last until the Wars of Religion and the Battle of Granges in 1622. Besieged by Protestants, Catholic forces from Agen came to the aid of the village but were then attacked by the Protestants in a surprise movement and were defeated with great loss of life. The village was burnt, and villagers massacred.

Granges is an agricultural – fruit-growing – community and has been since even before the plum tree was brought back from Crusades. The riverside lands are fertile and produce green beans, tomatoes, strawberries and courgettes as well as the plums, which are transformed by drying and then re-moisturising into prunes. Recently introduced have been hazelnut groves whilst recently removed have been the tobacco fields that once dominated the landscape.

Of course, the river itself was a major source of commerce for the village and its small port and slipways. Dykes that can still be seen managed the river flow. River navigation once supported the lives of sailors and captains, boat-builders and fishermen. 

In the Granges locality . . .