The castle farm was for centuries the most important rural settlement on the Montfermeil plateau. It was built around 1635, at the same time as a large bourgeois house of which it was then the commons, the House of Bourlon, which later became the Petit Château.
In 1700, the minister Chamillart then lord of Montfermeil, reunites for the first time the Petit Château and its common to his domain. The farm then became seigneurial firm. Later acquired by the Hocquart family, it remained in its possession, with the exception of the revolutionary period, until the estate was divided at the end of the 19th century.
The various seigneurs, who owned most of Montfermeil’s land, made the farm prosper. Livestock, cows and horses, sheep and poultry were raised there, grain and fodder were stored under the large roofs, and a vegetable garden completed the whole. The farm was therefore a significant income with its multiple productions.
Surrounded by walls and high fences, the castle farm had arrived almost intact until the Second World War. On sale after the liberation, the whole was acquired by a private who could not assume the heavy maintenance and restoration charges had demolished in 1947 all the central part and then twenty years later the western part. Saved and restored by the Municipality of Montfermeil, the last surviving building became a museum in 1983.
The visit of the site first includes a conference on the history of the farm, followed by a discovery of the building and its 17th century frame. It continues with an open visit of the spaces dedicated to agricultural activity, soil preparation (ploughing, harrowing, etc.), seeding and care of the plant (sowing, pruning, weeding, binage, etc.), until the harvest and the associated treatments (harvesting, threshing, pruning, harvesting, vinification, etc.) without forgetting the care provided to draught animals.
Interested visitors will also have the opportunity to visit the other rooms of the museum dedicated to the professions of the forest and the crafts of the craftsmen.