The Migné-Auxances memoires association has recently invested a lot on the occasion of the ceremonies for the liberation of Migné in September 1944 and on the importance of the Lourdines quarries site in the evocation of the tragedies which caused the death of eight resistance fighters. Today, a completely different theme is the subject of a publication, the hydraulic mills of Migné-Auxances.
Up to thirteen mills
Bernard Poussard has brought together in this book the fruit of his meticulous research over many years. The Auxance river has had up to thirteen mills on the territory of the commune alone (but no windmill). The first mills on the Auxance were intended for grinding cereals and date from the 11e century. Other functions developed, such as paper mills and fulling mills, also called cloth mills.
The profession of miller could not have been completely profitable because many of them were also farmers. They sometimes had an oven for baking bread.
Around these mills developed a trade and a specialized craft of mill carpenters and grinders, responsible for shaping and maintaining the millstones which came from the Moulière forest.
This book evokes the history of these thirteen mills, but also particular uses of the mills, such as the production of electricity or craft beer and others little known in our region: iron, oil or tan mills which ground the oak bark used for tanning hides.
The one hundred and thirty-one pages of Hydraulic mills of Migné-Auxances evoke a recent past still present in the collective memory.
Book on sale at the Rochereaux bar-tabac. Association Migné-Auxances memoirs: Jean-Luc Carré, 55, rue de Saumur in Migné-Auxances; 05.49.51.76.20.
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