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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The dam des Mazelles, located on the communes of Thesee and Pouillé en Loir-et-Cher, is a hydraulic complex built between 1838 and 1843 during the channeling of the Cher. It includes a 45-metre long mobile needle dam, a 41-metre fixed weir, a 35 x 5.20-metre lock, and a brick and stone hatch house, designed to house two families. This system, inspired by Mr. Poirée's inventions (1833), regulates water levels for permanent river navigation, while adapting to seasonal floods.

The dam uses cast iron fermettes (original, although the aprons have been replaced) and a mobile winch to lift or lie the structure at the bottom of the river. The fir needles, held by the current, form a water retention of 2.10 metres. A major innovation comes from the engineer of Haranguier de Quincenot: the replacement of boarded decks by solidary sheetboard aprons of the farm, reducing lifting manoeuvres to one operation. This system, then adopted in Europe and the United States, makes the Cher dams an influential prototype in the history of industrial hydraulics.

The lockhouse, identical to 15 others along the Cher but unique by its mixture of brick and stone, houses two houses and a common bread oven. The attic, made habitable in the 1990s by skylights, reflects modern adaptations. The spillway, rebuilt in 1902 by Alphonse Bodin, limits the risk of submersion. Ranked as a Historic Monument in 1998, the ensemble illustrates the industrial age and its threatened technical heritage, while highlighting the Cher's pioneering role in the river pipeline.

The dam of the Mazelles, built in 1839 under the direction of Camille Bailloud, embodies a key step between the first tests on the Yonne (1834) and the future development of the Seine. Its trapezoidal fermettes (1.50 m high), spaced at 1 m, and 2.75 m needles make it a reduced model suitable for rivers. The site, with its metal door lock replacing the original wood, remains a rare example of 19th century hydraulic techniques, between innovation and artisanal heritage.

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