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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Vaudeurs wind turbine is a Bollée wind turbine, model 2 of the manufacturer of Le Mans, installed in the department of Yonne. It is distinguished by its motor disc of 3.50 meters in diameter, carried by a quadrangular tower of 18 meters high. Equipped with a governor and a wheelbarrow, it was connected to a stone shelter housing pumps and emergency engines, as well as an 80 m3 cement tank. Its main role was to supply water to the communal washhouse and the public water supply.

Built in 1923 after two years of preparation, the wind turbine was chosen among several proposals for its power adapted to permanent public use. The work, entrusted to local companies such as Jouannet de Migennes for the well and the Cimafer concretes of Montereau for the reservoir, cost 58,400 francs, financed in part by a communal loan. It operated until the 1950s, before being restored in 1989 thanks to a country contract and municipal funds.

Classified as a Historical Monument in 2004 and labeled "Heritage of the 20th Century", this wind turbine is one of the last of its kind in Burgundy. Its flint and brick shelter, well and location on the Place de l'Eolienne are rare examples of rural water supply systems. The wash that it fed, now private, and the reservoir, destroyed in the 1970s, recall its past usefulness.

The engineer Deplay, based in Le Mans, supervised the installation of a system combining wind turbine and emergency petrol engines. This project illustrates the technical innovations of the 1920s to meet collective water needs, in a context where modern networks were not yet widespread. The preservation of the pump shelter and the tower, despite the disappearance of elements such as the reservoir, underscores its heritage importance.

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