Timeline

Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Rat Windmill is an iconic building located in Challain-la-Potherie, Maine-et-Loire department. Built between 1796 and 1827, it embodies the traditional schist architecture of the country. Its 9-metre-high slender tower, with three floors served by a milling ladder, houses a complex mechanism of wheels and gears operated by Berton-type wings, installed after 1859.

The mill experienced several phases of technical evolution: initially driven by wind power, it was equipped with a diesel engine in the 1930s, then electric around 1950. After a period of decline when it was only milling cereals for livestock, it was restored in 1978, allowing the return to production of white bakery flour thanks to wind energy. Since 1991, it has benefited from a cereal quota, making it the last professional windmill operating in Maine-et-Loire.

Ranked a historic monument in 1975, the Rat mill has remained in the same miller family since 1855, with François Hoinard as first owner, followed by his descendants, including Bernard Hoinard, current manager. Its mechanism, including a mobile cap, three pairs of grinding wheels and a blutery, illustrates the artisanal know-how of traditional windmills. The restoration of the wings in 1992 by the carpenter André Croix allowed its original functioning to continue.

The mill also symbolizes the resilience of ancestral techniques to modernization. Refusing quotas in 1936, he survived by adapting, moving from animal milling to bread-making flour production, while preserving its authenticity. Today, it attracts for its technical heritage and its role in local history, testifying to the ingenuity of millers and the importance of mills in the rural economy of the Pays de la Loire.

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