Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The windmill of the Épinay, located in Loury in the Loiret, was attested in 1834 on the Napoleonic cadastre. This pivot mill, built between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, rests on stone dice and originally had two levels. Its mechanism, now almost completely disappeared, was equipped after 1850 with the Berton system, an innovation allowing the miller to adjust the surface of the wooden wings from inside the building. This system, typical of the windmills of the time, aimed to optimize production according to weather conditions.

Currently, the mill retains only one of the two yards of its wings, unaxed and planted on the ground, as well as its tree with a wheel, the last vestige of the original mechanism. The interior staircase has disappeared, and the structure, although protected since 1988 by an inscription to the Historical Monuments, offers a fragmentary testimony of traditional milling techniques. Its present state reflects both its gradual abandonment and the traces of the technological adaptations of the nineteenth century.

The Épinay mill was a key component of the local economy, as evidenced by its registration in the cadastre of 1834. Windmills played a central role in the processing of cereals, a major activity in the countryside of the Centre-Val de Loire. Their decline, which began with the mechanization and concentration of industrial mills in the 19th century, explains the gradual abandonment of these structures. Today, the site remains a marker of the rural and artisanal heritage of the region, although its access and current vocation (visit, rental) are not specified in the available sources.

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