The Roche lock and mill
A causeway has existed here at La Roche-du-Maine since at least the 14th century. It operated two mills on either bank of the Mayenne. After 1537, the causeway was fitted with a sailgate and was replaced by a lock dam when the river was canalised in 1882.
The new dam did not require the demolition of the mills, which had already been rebuilt in 1842 on the right bank and in 1850 on the left bank in Fromentières.
The lock-keeper's house was built on the model of all those in southern Mayenne.
The Moulin de la Roche was first mentioned in 1660 and is located on the right bank of the river. It belongs to this generation of medieval wheat mills set up on the banks of the Mayenne, generally as a battery (i.e. a group of several mills).
There have been many mills on the Mayenne since the 12th century, with around one every 3 km from the 14th to the 18th century. There were still around fifty of them in the 1960s; today, seven remain.
Paper mills, fulling mills (for working woollen and linen sheets), tans mills (for grinding oak and chestnut bark into powder and tanning hides) and flour mills dotted the countryside.
From the 19th century onwards, with the industrial revolution, small mills with one or two millstones were replaced by large flour mills taking advantage of technical progress (turbines replacing wheels, cylinders replacing millstones, etc.).
This new generation of mills was generally run by mill operators rather than by the owners.
The Moulin de la Roche was a flour mill. The last miller, Baptiste Chaligné, who had operated the mill since at least 1914, ceased his activity in 1941. All the machinery has disappeared.
©larocheneuville.fr
A causeway has existed here at La Roche-du-Maine since at least the 14th century. It operated two mills on either bank of the Mayenne. After 1537, the causeway was fitted with a sailgate and was replaced by a lock dam when the river was canalised in 1882.
The new dam did not require the demolition of the mills, which had already been rebuilt in 1842 on the right bank and in 1850 on the left bank in Fromentières.
The lock-keeper's house was built on the model of all those in southern Mayenne.
The Moulin de la Roche was first mentioned in 1660 and is located on the right bank of the river. It belongs to this generation of medieval wheat mills set up on the banks of the Mayenne, generally as a battery (i.e. a group of several mills).
There have been many mills on the Mayenne since the 12th century, with around one every 3 km from the 14th to the 18th century. There were still around fifty of them in the 1960s; today, seven remain.
Paper mills, fulling mills (for working woollen and linen sheets), tans mills (for grinding oak and chestnut bark into powder and tanning hides) and flour mills dotted the countryside.
From the 19th century onwards, with the industrial revolution, small mills with one or two millstones were replaced by large flour mills taking advantage of technical progress (turbines replacing wheels, cylinders replacing millstones, etc.).
This new generation of mills was generally run by mill operators rather than by the owners.
The Moulin de la Roche was a flour mill. The last miller, Baptiste Chaligné, who had operated the mill since at least 1914, ceased his activity in 1941. All the machinery has disappeared.
©larocheneuville.fr
