Moulin du Boëlle

English translation

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History

The mill of Boëlle or of the Castle, was the seigneurial mill of the barony of Montreuil-Bellay; it is mentioned in 1272, but it can reasonably be supposed that it existed from the founding of the fortress, around 1025. Several times rebuilt, in the 15th and 17th centuries, it was destroyed by fire in 1896 and rebuilt in the Gothic style of the 15th century, by the architect Emile Roffay. The milling activity continued there until the early 20th century. In its former configuration, prior to 1896, the mill comprised two single-storey buildings, resting on the right bank of the Thouet, built in the extension of one another perpendicular to the current. A causeway starting from the end of the mill ran up and blocked the river for several hundred metres, diverting low water towards the mill. Documents from the 19th century show that the mill possessed at least two sets of stones and perhaps three, therefore two or three wheels. After the reconstruction of 1896, the mill was occupied by the milling enterprise Tenneguin-Mallard; the traditional millstones had been replaced by cylinder mills, the grinding was entirely automatic and of the Simon system.