Around 1837, the bell caster Paul Havard took over the business from his brother-in-law, César Béatrix. His son Adolphe Havard, an engineer trained at the ‘Ecole polytechnique’, continued the business and built a foundry workshop in 1865. In this way, he cemented the activity of bell casting. From 1874, he significantly increased the production of the foundry, exporting bells all over the world. In 1903, Adolphe Havard joined forces with his son-in-law Léon Cornille, and a year later, the latter became director of the foundry, which was as a result renamed Cornille-Havard.