[3] Écouché stands out today for the monumental church, a very rare Republican altar, several medieval merchants' houses, a number of original towers, a network of well-conserved lanes and – a reminder of the ordeal of World War II and the Liberation – a Sherman assault tank.

It can be supposed that the Gauls(Celts) and the Gallo-Romans recognised the advantages of the site, but the earliest written documents available that mention SCOCEI date only from 1066 (a grant of tithes from Gacé and Écouché by William the Conqueror to his wife Mathilda at the Ladies' Abbey (Abbaye aux Dames[6] ) in Caen).

They were in a bad state at the beginning of the 16th century and the inhabitants secured permission from King François I to raise a tax on the retail sale of drinks in order to restore the moats, and extend them towards the Udon marshes.

Entry to the town was by four gates provided with watch-towers: The mound at the centre of Écouché, although rendered useless by the fire of 1136, was a reminder of the feudal lord's authority.

Originally, the stone towers (in Écouché usually hexagonal) were places of observation of the surrounding countryside and of defence at the town gates.

Ownership of a tower soon became a status symbol for the better-off, and in the 15th century new ones grew up in various places around the town; fifteen survive today.

The Lords' Resources They received: In addition, they had the right to appoint the langueyeurs, i.e. those who checked that pigs were in good health prior to consumption.

The bourgeois was exempt from: However, the borough was obliged to undertake maintenance of the arches of the bridge, the town defence structures, the feudal mound and the sergeant's premises, as well as to remunerate the latter every year in the form of: Markets: Every Tuesday and Friday the residents of the town, people from surrounding parishes and more or less regular peddlers descended on the Place d'Armes and the Place du Marché, while those who kept permanent shops under the porches of their houses in the Main Street served an increased number of customers.

The limestone plateau of Joué du Plain, on the Southern edge of Écouché, is rich in Jurassic deposits used for making mortar, and has been quarried for a very long time.

Five hundred years ago, lime was made by masons in small upright ovens situated either near the quarry or close to the building site, after transporting the limestone rocks and kindling there.

Crushed limestone rocks and firewood were laid in alternate layers so as to facilitate calcination of the stones, and obtain an oxyde of calcium.

The ovoid ovens were improved with the addition of chimneys, and later by the use of refractory bricks which extended their life to twenty years without need for rebuilding.

A drying system made it possible to process very fine and humid matter and to improve production (150 tons of mortar per day in 1966).

Cereal production mainly, but also cattle and pigs, kept day workers busy, hiring out their hands to this farmer or that, while their wives and children look after their own thin herds on the common wetlands.

A factory producing large sheets in the fashion of Lisieux, bought mainly by merchants from Falaise who take them to Brittany, employed 150 workers in 1789; but only about 50 in 1809.

During World War II Écouché's buildings and homes suffered 15% heavy damage from aerial bombing and street fighting during the liberation.

Local residence think of the war years as divided into three phases: Neighbouring communes suffered from the rural exodus and lost the majority of their inhabitants (e.g. Joué du Plain: 925 in 1806, down to 201 in 1975), thus sharing in the collapse of the population of the Department of the Orne as a whole (443,673 in 1836, down to 292,337 in 1999).

Half of them own their own homes, 98.9% have running water, 82.2% own at least one vehicle; while 38.1% are in paid employment, 4.5% are seeking jobs and 31% live on retirement pensions.

In Écouché it is covered by vesulian limestone, in turn surmounted by relatively fertile soil deposits from the three rivers that provide the commune with water: the Orne to the north, the Cance to the east and the Udon to the south.