Despite the proximity of the so-called « Maison du Bourreau » (executioner's house), the black hood, a symbolic attribute of the function, is not the origin of our name. Our neighbor with the « oxblood » colored half-timbered house, symbol of Lamballe, has never been the home of an executioner but the home of the Bourceau family, from the 17th century. A venal photographer from the early 20th century simply had the idea of altering a letter to add a touch of sensationalism to his postcards.
The name of the establishment also dates back to the time of the Bourceau house, about 400 years ago. At the beginning of the 17th century, the majority of the population could not read, so the signs indicating the names of the streets were of little use. Names were rather spontaneously attributed to places by popular culture based on their uses (« Place de l'Eglise » (Church Square), « La Poterie » (The Potery), « Rue du Four » (Oven Street), « Place des Tanneurs » (Tanners' Square) ) or on architectural or environmental particularities (« Rue du Val » (Valley Street), « Rue de la Tour aux Chouettes » (Owl Tower Street), « Rabine de la Porte Verte » (Green Gate Alley) ), etc.
In the case of this establishment, it seems that a beautiful horse with a black coat and head was parked for a while in front of the building : Property of a customer or of the innkeeper, the animal remained there long enough to make an impression. Indeed, at the time, horses, including farm horses, were rare (draft animals were mainly cattle). A beautiful all-black horse therefore had the potential to make an impression and ended up being used by the Lamballe people to refer to the place and the hostel.
