Gironde via its fortified mills

CDT 33 - Hubert Sion

Built of dressed stone and provided with thick walls, they include a range of defensive features designed to protect them from attack by regular soldiers as well as from the bands of brigands that wrought havoc across the countryside during the troubled times of the Hundred Years’ War.

They were built in the 14^th  and 15^th  centuries.
Saint-Ferme Abbey  and, above all, La Sauve-Majeure Abbey  – the most influential in Entre-Deux-Mers – owned large numbers of mills, including the fortified Moulin Neuf in Espiet and the Moulin de Daignac.
The Moulin de La Borie on the Gamage was built in the mid-13^th  century and, in the Middle Ages, was a dependency of Château de Blasimon. They were built in the 14^th  and 15^th  centuries. Saint-Ferme Abbey  and, above all, La Sauve-Majeure Abbey  – the most influential in Entre-Deux-Mers – owned large numbers of mills, including the fortified Moulin Neuf in Espiet and the Moulin de Daignac. The Moulin de La Borie on the Gamage was built in the mid-13^th  century and, in the Middle Ages, was a dependency of Château de Blasimon.

Fortified mills

The Moulin de Bagas was built on the Drot in 1316. It is a rectangular edifice of uniform construction employing regular, medium-sized stones, with a watchtower at each corner and standing solidly on an island in the river. The entrance door, beneath its gothic arch, is on the first floor at the end of a metal bridge spanning the old lock. Large windows made up of traceries divided into pairs of trifoiled gothic arches date from the original construction. The mill’s defences are in the style of a fortified manor, with alisee-cross slit windows from which to survey the surroundings and rain down arrows on possible attackers. The interior is devoted to milling activities. The mill was equipped with three horizontal waterwheels that drove the millstones (two pairs of which are still in place). Complex mechanisms in the upper storeys were designed to sort the grain, convey it to the millstones, and finally fill the sacks with flour – all powered by hydraulic energy!

The Moulin de Labarthe in Blasimon stands on a diversion of the Gamage that originally passed right through it. A square building in the style of a fortified manor, it comprises six storeys. The fourth and fifth floors were given over to lodgings and the top floor reserved for the covered walkway above the machicolations. A stairway tower serving all six floors was added in the 15^th  century, and the building’s walls, which originally contained few openings, were provided with fine cross-slit windows to improve the general comfort of the place. The mill possessed two waterwheels, one horizontal and employed for milling activities, and the other vertical, activating a fulling mill.

The Moulin de la Salle, on the Vignague in the municipality of Cleyrac, is designed as a rectangular keep. The only openings on the lower storeys are loopholes, while the third and fourth storeys are supplied with simple or gemeled windows. The edifice is topped by a machicolated walkway. The watercourse was diverted around 1800, depriving the old watermill of its primary activity. The mill adjoins a 16^th  -century corps-de-logis.

The Moulin Neuf in Espiet, which was remodelled throughout in the late 15^th  century, was for centuries the property of La Sauve-Majeure Abbey. Oblong in shape, it is remarkable for the crosses topping the walls of the north and south facades and serving as antefixes. Machicolated balconies and projecting buttresses protect the north door. A vertical wheel around five metres in diameter – now vanished – drove two pairs of millstones, which are still in place and were operational up until 1950.

The Moulin de Pondaurat: in the late 13^th  century, the Hospital Brothers of Saint Anthony built a commandery with a monastic church on the Vézelay road, one of the Ways of Saint James of Compostela, attaching a fortified mill to it to protect the convent and the adjoining toll bridge. The mill is constructed of dressed stone and limestone rubble, and has three loopholes covering access to the 13-metre long, seven-arched barrage bridge. It passed into the hands of the Order of Malta, was sold as state property, and was remodelled at various periods in its history, remaining in full activity until the end of the 19^th  century, after which it operated on a reduced scale, with only a single pair of wheels directly connected to the millstones. It ceased activity in the early 1960s and has now been transformed into a residence.