I'm looking for advice about the hamlet of Smohain. Now that I've completed the farms of Papelotte, La Haye and Frischermont, I need to join these up. The intervening real estate is covered by the small village of Smohain known nowadays more often as La Marache.
Here are some pictures of the completed farms:
La Haye Farm:
Papelotte:
Frischermont:
This image shows the farms and village in relation to each other:
This shows the modern village:
This shows the Siborne Anaglyptographic map (yes that is a word:
This a later 19th Century map:
This is probably the best source, taken from the cadastral map:
None of the above maps indicate a church in Smohain and yet this image shows one:
As does this:
This image from the Rouse and Mudford series of prints is entitled "Frischermont" but is obviously meant to show a village not the chateau:
It also shows a church.
It is highly unlikely that a ruined church would not have been rebuilt after the battle. Since churches are always shown on maps (for instance the equivalent cadastral map of Plancenoit clearly shows the church) and since no map shows a church in Smohain, I am drawn to the conclusion that there was no church.
Instead, I suspect that the artists had painted the church not in Smohain, but in Ohain which is much further East.
This image of the Ohain church ties in with the images:
Finally, this quadrant of a Waterloo panoramic clearly marks Papelotte, Frischermont and the church at Ohain:
My mission now is to make a diagram of the houses that existed in 1815. In this regard, I've been helped by Chris Dodson who has sent me some black and white aerial images.
My questions to the collective brain of forum members are twofold: does my logic sound about right? do you have any other source material?
many thanks!
