Le mill of the nation

The Moulin de la Nation (The Mill of the Nation) was progressively transformed into homes and today retains none of its milling machinery. It is the sole remaining vestige of the flour, tanning and paper mills that existed along the valley of the upper Cailly river.

The building, which is still flanked by its water wheel that turned the mill stones, stands on a base of large sandstone blocks. It is three storeys high and its walls are built in two types of brick, which are proof of the different phases of reconstruction and enlargement that took place during the 19th century.

In fact, there was once an old mill on this site that belonged to the Fécamp abbey, under the old regime. It became national property (from where its name) after the confiscation of clerical goods by the constituent assembly on November 2nd 1789. It was then put up for sale by the Imperial Sinking Fund. It was later bought from M. David Dubuc, a Rouen manufacturer, by Mme Edet, who obtained, by royal decree of King Louis Philippe on February 16th 1846, the right to use its hydraulic power.

François Vendémiaire-Delamare became the owner in 1849 and two years later transformed it into the multi-storey building that gave it its present day dimensions. At the beginning of the 20th century it changed ownership and production, a sewing factory replacing the flour mill. In 1920 Achille Alcoque (father) re-equipped it as a flour mill, but, despite all  the modernisation work undertaken by  his son, Philippe, the mill stopped producing flour definitively in 1958.

The present waterwheel is linked  via various transmission systems to a generator which is able to produce electricity periodically. It is a lateral wheel measuring 5m in diameter and 1.20m in width. The structure is metallic, except for the 40 paddles which are in different types of wood, oak, azobe and acacia. It normally turns at 4tr/m and directly drives a hornbeam pit-wheel on its axis. The whole transmission system, formed from an additional  straight pinion, two grooved pulleys and four flat pulleys, produces a final rotation speed of 1000tr/m. The waterfall height is 1,70m, the river flow esteemed to be  300l/s and thus the maximum usable power is 3kw.