You will be able to attend a demonstration of draught(grinding).
The mill of Tanks is a mill with three-wheeled water located on a reach in the low valley of Sée, small coastal river throwing(casting) itself into the bay(berry) of the Mont Saint-Michel. It was used up to the vicinity of the year 1940 for the draught(grinding) of three cereals, wheat, Saracen and barley, then until 1984, retired of the last miller, to produce flours for animals. It was not updated and he kept(preserved) all its mechanisms, its three external wheels, its three internal mills, its cleaner, its bluterie, its goods lifts.
The presence of a mill in this place is very old(former). They find the most old(former) quotation of the Mill of Tanks in the copy of the charter of foundation of the collegiate church of Mortain, dating of 1082, when he is written that the rights of the mill of Tanks (and tithes) returned to the big(great) cantor of the collegiate church of Mortain (Handle).
It was in the past a banal mill dependent on the fief of Tanks, having belonged to the nobility of the county of Mortain, in the descendants of Robert de Cuves and of his son Raul du XIe century in the XIIIth century, then in of the Ferrière du XIIIe in the XVIth century.
In a confession of 1539, it is possible to read that Jeanne de la Ferrière was possessing the fief and the Mill of Tanks. She(It) had first married Jean de Falaise, and in second weddings, Mr de Montchauveau. His son, François de Montchauveau, inherited the seigniory of Tanks. Of Montchauveau kept(preserved) the seigniory of Tanks till the end of next century.
The domain of Tanks was then acquired(bought back) by the family Doynel (Doynel de Montécot, Doynel de Quincey) who kept(preserved) it until 1851.
The building was altered at the beginning of the XIXth century, but according to a French National Architect, the base of the mill would date the XVth century or of the XVIth century. The spillway was extended by 1850, at the request of the prefecture of Manche(Channel,Sleeve), further to a petition of the residents who complained about inundations, and it is probably towards this date when the internal mechanisms were altered. The mill since kept(preserved) all its character, so outside as indoors.