Combles in the 19th century

After the French Revolution, Combles gained local administrative importance and became the seat of a canton. It kept this role for more than two centuries, until the cantonal reform that came into force in 2015. Population records show a town far more populous than today: around 1,414 inhabitants in 1793, nearly 1,680 in 1836 and still more than 1,600 in the mid-19th century. On the eve of the First World War, the 1911 census still counted just over 1,150 inhabitants. This larger population implies a busier economic and social life: shops, crafts, a school, administrative services, farming and trade with neighbouring villages. Census returns, land registers and old postcards could help reconstruct this daily life in detail.