Prochain point :
Gabriel Voisin et Victor Margueritte
Prochain point : lat="49.06216" lon="1.700330005"
Mill
Miller: a vital trade for the village
An ancient water mill...
This mill, called "le Vieux Moulin" (The Old Mill) was powered by La Vallée brook from Vienne-en-Arthies. It appears on many old maps, including that of Cassini in the eighteenth century. Its buildings are clearly depicted on the Napoleonic land register of 1819. Vetheuil had two mills on the same brook. A 1759 text testifies that both mills belonged to the lord of La Roche-Guyon. Whoever wanted to grind grain there had to pay a tax.
... Vestige of industrial heritage
Its architecture is typical of this activity. The wheel is still in place, which is quite rare. The building has two floors and an attic. Grain bags were hoisted with a pulley installed in the attic. The contents were poured into the hopper, which fed the millstones on the lower floor. The grinding wheel was connected by a series of gears to the mill wheel, which was powered by water. The ground grain was placed in a bolter (rotating seive) to separate the bran from the flour. It was then put into into sacks. The miller had to make sure there was always grain between the turning millstones, otherwise they could rub against each other causing sparks which could lead to devastating fires.
This mill was also reportedly a factory for photographic apparatus in the late nineteenth century.
