Timeline

Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The water mill of the Chef du Bois, located in La Forêt-Fouesnant in Brittany, is presumed to date from the end of the sixteenth century, although its origin may be prior and linked to a monastic foundation. It was once on the former parish of Locamand. Its architecture, marked by a rectangular plan, a floor with narrow openings and chamfered doors, gives it looks of Breton mansion. Built of granite, it was inhabited by the miller's family and still retained a stubble cover in the 1930s. The mill is powered by an almost 800-metre bypass channel, and its hydraulic system, dated 1779 and 1792, consists of two 3-metre-diameter-diameter oak wheels with grinding wheels and a cylinder added after World War I.

The site, classified as Historic Monument in 1939, illustrates the ingenuity of traditional hydraulic systems. The inscriptions engraved in the granite of the noc attest to the work carried out at the end of the eighteenth century, while its exterior appearance, with two angle turrets and a cashed position, reinforces its heritage character. Although its primary use was the production of flour, the mill also shows the adaptation of rural industrial buildings to domestic needs, as evidenced by the arrangements for housing the miller and his family.

The monumental quality of the mill, combined with the preservation of its mechanisms, makes it a rare example of a Breton water mill that has traversed the centuries with minor modifications. Its classification in 1939 underlines its historical and architectural importance, while protecting a technical and landscape heritage linked to the exploitation of water resources in the region.

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