ARMENTIERES  , a

town of northern France, in the department of Nord, on the Lys, 13 M . W.N.W. of Lille on the Northern railway from that city to Dunkirk . Pop . (1906) 25,408 . The chief building is the hotel de ville with a 17th-century belfry . There are communal colleges for girls and boys, a board of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce and a national technical school . The town is an important centre for the spinning and weaving of flax and cotton; bleaching, dyeing and the manufacture of machinery are among the other industries . Its industrial prosperity dates from the middle ages, when, however, woollen, not cotton, goods were the staple product .