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causses-cevennes.com
Southern Central Massif
Northern languedoc
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Causses
Cevennes
Gorges, du Tarn / de la Jonte
Monts Aigoual / Lozère
France
Cevennes cultural
activities
Activities Cevennes National Park
Ancient
postcards
Barre
des Cévennes
Bédouès
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Méjean
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Ispagnac
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Mende
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Aigoual
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Pompidou
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Pont de Montvert
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Quezac
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Rozier
St
Etienne Vallée Française
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Germain de Calberte
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jean du Gard
Ste
Enimie
Ste
Croix Vallée Française
La Vallée Française
Les
Vignes
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The
modern road, constructed at the beginning of this century,
uses a new bridge about 400 metres upstream.The
two mills are situated a little downstream of the old bridge.
They are fairly typical of the local architecture and very
similar to the many other abandoned mills in Lozère. Their
surface area is less than 20 square metres.
There is a small cellar in which the horizontal wheel was
located which drove the millstones placed immediately above. |
Both mills
appear to have had two wheels and two sets of stones. One of
them has an extra floor above, for storing the grain or for
the miller to camp out if he had to work at night.
One of the mills, now roofless, was last used in the 1920's
for milling dried chestnuts for mixing with cacao to make a
breakfast food popular at the time, but the other one has
probably not ground grain for well over a hundred years. |
The
milllstones are still there but the wooden mill-wheels have
long since rotted away leaving only a few of the metal parts.
The site has been used
for milling for several centuries but little is as yet known
about its early history. Major alterations were made in the
early 19th century, including the building of a new reservoir
and the filling in of the old one, which must have been too
weak to withstand the force of the river during exceptional
rains.
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(In the
Cevennes one occasionally has as much as 30 centimetres of
rain in 24 hours and a metre in a week!)
There are the remains of a very small thirdmill older than the
other two and also some mysterious holes cut into the rock at
regular intervals across the river which obviously served to
support a temporary wooden dam, the purpose of which is
unclear.The mills took their water from a small dam about 300
metres upstream. |
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Part of the
water in the river was diverted along a little channel (called
a béal) which here is about 60 cm wide and 30-40 cm deep, to
fill a reservoir (mill-pool) beside the mill. Because of the
enormous variations in the amount of water in the river the
mills had to be placed out of danger |
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- they
could not use the water from the river directly.
When the reservoir was full a trap about 15cm by 15 cm would
be opened to let the water drive the wheel.
When the reservoir was empty - after an hour to an hour and a
half - the mill would have to stop until it had refilled,
which would take several hours. One reservoir full would allow
the milling of about one sack of flour. |
| There is a
project under way to restore these mills and their spectacular
site. In about five years it is hoped that one of the mills
will be completely restored and capable of functioning, the béal
repaired and a large number of local and regional plants
introduced to give a botanical interest to the site. |
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Much,
however, will depend on voluntary help to clean and repair the
béal, rebuild a number of stone walls etc so if anyone is
interested in a working holiday in a wonderful spot on a small
but rewarding project they should get in touch with the owner.
E-mail
address:
ptcockle@orange.fr
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