Domaine de Puyraveau

English translation

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History

The estate was established by Henri Avril, mayor of Pouant from 1892 to 1906, who had various buildings of the wine-growing operation constructed in the years 1880-1885, including the windmill which ceased operating around 1940. The windmill is of Bollée type from 1885. A dressed stone flight of steps with tie-rods retains a hollow cylindrical column, fitted with stays in steel rods hooked either into the walls or into the ground. The structure is of steel casting. The staircase ramp is ornamented, at its base, with a "pine cone". The staircase comprises a bolted and riveted stringer, with about fifty full trapezoidal steps (from 1885 onwards, the steps will be hollow and pierced to prevent rust). A few metres from the windmill, the well is protected by a square tower on the outside, oval on the inside, built of rubble stone render and dressed stone. A horizontal shaft, driven by a conical bevel in the third lantern of the windmill, crosses the tower and transmits the rotation to a second shaft fitted with a solid wheel which may have received a bucket chain. Water filled a sheet-metal reservoir of 6000 litres, placed on stone posts (now disappeared). A small gate closed the entrance to the garden. The master's house retains some decorative elements, but most of those which remained inside have been repainted. Two adjoining gardens develop, including the one where the windmill stands. The latter presented an arrangement with basin and system of gutters, fed with water by the windmill, and a rockery grotto.