Les Adjots

Les Adjots
Commune
Town hall
Location of Les Adjots
Les Adjots Show map of France Les Adjots Show map of Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Coordinates: 46°04′39″N 0°12′26″E
Country	France
Region	Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Department	Charente
Arrondissement	Confolens
Canton	Charente-Nord
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Alain Dunoyer[1]
Area ^1	10.94 km^2 (4.22 sq mi)
Population  (2022)[2]	532
• Density	49/km^2 (130/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	16002 /16700
Elevation	120–168 m (394–551 ft) (avg. 130 m or 430 ft)
^1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km^2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Les Adjots (French pronunciation: [le.z‿adʒo]) is a commune in the Charente department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France.

Geography

Location and access

Les Adjots is a commune located in the north of the department of Charente. It borders both neighbouring departments of Deux-Sèvres (northwest) and Vienne (north-east). It is located some 65 km south of Poitiers and 60 km north of Angoulême.

Traversed by the N10 west of the village running from north to south and by the parallel railway line along the eastern border of the commune, Les Adjots was on the road from Paris to Bordeaux as shown on plate 28 in the Atlas of Trudaine.[3]

The departmental roads D911 passes through the commune close to the N10 from the north and continues south to Ruffec. The D176 also runs from the village south-east to Taize-Aizie and the D305 runs west to La Paiziere.

The railway line Paris-Austerlitz to Bordeaux Saint-Jean passes through the eastern boundary of the commune. Ruffec is the nearest station.

Hamlets and localities

Northwest of the town of Adjots, Chez Branger is the largest hamlet in the commune. It is located on the former N10. North of the town there are Chez Chagnaud and Chez Machet and to the south La Cour, Les Robins, and Les Loges. In the south-west the hamlet of La Batarderie is separated from the rest of the commune by the N10.[4]

Neighbouring communes and villages

Source:[5]

Geology and terrain

Geologically, the commune is located on Jurassic limestone of the Aquitaine Basin as is all of North-Charente. The Bathonian age appears on a small area east of the town, but the plateau is covered by alterite in the form of red flinty clay and locally by Oolite of iron south of the town.[6][7][8]

The relief of the commune is that of a plateau with an average altitude of 140m. The highest point of the commune is at an altitude of 168m located on the north-western boundary. The lowest point is 120m located on the south-eastern boundary (Bois de Vallons). Due to the nature of the karst soil there are also some depressions and sinkholes. The village is 127m above sea level.[4]

Hydrography

The town is located in the basin of the Charente but it has no watercourses or lakes.[4]

Climate

As in three-quarters south and west of the department, the climate is oceanic Aquitaine, slightly degraded in the north of the department near the Seuil du Poitou.

Vegetation

The territory is composed of 69% of agricultural land, 27% forests and semi-natural areas, and 4% of artificial areas.[9]

Toponymy

Attested in the Latinized form De Adjotis meaning "The gorse" in 1280[10]

The current spelling is explained by the medieval romanization of the old French word ajou (13th century) ajonc which actually dates back to the pre-Latin *ajaugone giving *ajon ( of where ajonc. It is spelt with a final C by analogy with jonc, from the Latin juncus) giving ajou.

There are at least two dialects in the region ajaillon and jogue (feminine form from *ajauga) more to the south.

Administration

Created in 1793, Les Adjots passed from the arrondissement of Angoulême to the arrondissement of Confolens on 1 January 2008.

List of Successive Mayors of Les Adjots[11]

From	To	Name	Party	Position
1995	2008	Josette Pacton
2008	2020	Francis Grimaud	SE	Retired on Social Security
2020	2026	Alain Dunoyer

Demography

The inhabitants of the commune are known as Adjotois or Adjotoises in French.[12] After losing 45% of its population from 1851 to 1921 Les Adjots stabilized its population between 390 and 530 inhabitants.

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1793 661 —     1800 683 +0.47% 1806 646 −0.92% 1821 749 +0.99% 1831 896 +1.81% 1841 821 −0.87% 1846 864 +1.03% 1851 942 +1.74% 1856 879 −1.37% 1861 810 −1.62% 1866 781 −0.73% 1872 744 −0.81% 1876 727 −0.58% 1881 690 −1.04% 1886 690 +0.00% 1891 695 +0.14% 1896 601 −2.86% 1901 593 −0.27%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1906 580 −0.44% 1911 562 −0.63% 1921 520 −0.77% 1926 512 −0.31% 1931 502 −0.39% 1936 494 −0.32% 1946 469 −0.52% 1954 512 +1.10% 1962 513 +0.02% 1968 488 −0.83% 1975 515 +0.77% 1982 453 −1.82% 1990 448 −0.14% 1999 390 −1.53% 2007 451 +1.83% 2012 526 +3.12% 2017 525 −0.04%
Source: EHESS[13] and INSEE[14]

Distribution of Age Groups

Percentage Distribution of Age Groups in Les Adjots and Charente Department in 2017

	Les Adjots		Charente
Age Range	Men	Women	Men	Women
0 to 14 Years	20.3	21.7	16.7	14.8
15 to 29 Years	16.5	14.3	15.7	13.8
30 to 44 Years	19.0	20.2	17.1	16.3
45 to 59 Years	16.6	19.6	21.1	20.8
60 to 74 Years	18.9	17.7	19.6	19.8
75 to 89 Years	8.0	5.6	8.9	12.0
90 Years+	0.7	0.8	0.9	2.4

Source: INSEE[14][15]

Economy

Les Adjots is an agricultural commune with a few artisans, backhoe services, masons, and a painter.

In the village there is a grocery store.

Facilities

Education

The school is an inter-communal teaching group between Les Adjots and Taizé-Aizie with each hosting an elementary school.[16]

Medico-social

The IME Marc Signac is at La Tour.

Other services

Other services are found in Ruffec 8.5 km south.

Life in Adjots

Sport

The football club is a union between Taizé-Aizie and Les Adjots.

Communal and Employers Festival

The communal festival is at Easter and the employers festival on the first Sunday after 14 July.

• 
  The Festival Hall
• 
  The Sports Ground

Sites and Monuments

The Church of Adjots

• The Church, a parish of the former diocese of Poitiers, dates from the 12th and 13th centuries and was restored in the 19th century.
• The Pavillon Tower dates from the 17th century.

Notable People linked to the commune

• Auguste Merle (1855-1940), mayor of Saint-Junien, President of the Chamber of Notaries.

See also

• Communes of the Charente department

References

1. "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 13 September 2022.
2. "Populations de référence 2022" (in French). The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 19 December 2024.
3. Route de Paris à Bordeaux, planche 28. Memories database, Ministry of Culture
4. IGN map on Géoportail (in French)
5. Google Maps
6. BRGM map on Géoportail
7. Infoterre Visualiser, BRGM website
8. Notice on Ruffec, BRGM, 1973, Infoterre, consulted on 7 January 2012 (in French)
9. Source : EU – SOeS, CORINE Land Cover, 2006
10. Albert Dauzat and Charles Rostaing, Etymylogical Dictionary of placenames in France, Librairie Guénégaud 1979. p. 3. (in French)
11. List of Mayors of France (in French)
12. Le nom des habitants du 16 - Charente, habitants.fr
13. Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui: Commune data sheet Les Adjots, EHESS (in French).
14. Évolution et structure de la population en 2017: Commune des Adjots (16002)
15. Évolution et structure de la population en 2017: Département de la Charente (16)
16. Academic Inspection Directorate website (in French)

External links

• Les Adjots on the old National Geographic Institute website (in French)
• Les Adjots on Géoportail, National Geographic Institute (IGN) website (in French)
• Les Adjots on the 1750 Cassini Map