The Moulin de Cuves is a three-wheeled water mill located on a reach in the lower valley of the Sée, a small coastal river flowing into the bay of Mont Saint-Michel. It was used until about 1940 for the milling of three cereals, wheat, buckwheat and barley, then until 1984, when the last miller retired, to produce flour for animals. It has not been modernized and it has retained all its mechanisms, its three outer wheels, its three inner mills, its cleaner, its bluterie, its hoists.
It was once a banal mill dependent on the fief of Cuves, having belonged to the nobility of the county of Mortain, in the line of Robert de Cuves from the 11th to the 13th century, then Jeanne de la Ferrière from the 13th to the 16th century and de Montchauveau who kept the seigneury of Cuves until the end of the 17th century. The estate of Cuves was then bought by the Doynel family who kept it until 1851.
The oldest quotation from the Moulin de Cuves is found in the copy of the charter of foundation of the collegiate church of Mortain, dating from 1082, where it is written that the lord Robert de Cuves and his son Raoul, granted the rights of the Moulin de Cuves as well as the other banal rights of the seigneury of Cuves to the great cantor of the collegiate church of Mortain (Manche).
The building was rebuilt in the early nineteenth century, but according to an architect of French buildings, the base of the mill dates from the fifteenth or sixteenth century. The weir was enlarged around 1850, at the request of the Prefect of the English Channel, following a petition from residents who complained of the floods, and it is probably around this date that the internal mechanisms were modified. The mill has since retained its full character, both outside and inside.
During the visit we can attend a demonstration of old-fashioned buckwheat milling, still called black wheat. This rustic grinding is done with the systems as they were used in the nineteenth century: water wheel on a reach of the Sée, driving a pair of millstones to crush the grain, and a bluster to sift the crushed grain, separating flour, bran and milling residues. There is no fossil energy used in this process, only the force of the water allows to drive the mechanisms which are essentially made of wood, a little iron, and natural stone.
Buckwheat flour can be used to make black wheat patties, known as Breton patties, that can be topped according to his tastes, or to make porridge: it was once the basic food of the rural populations of the region. Buckwheat was produced locally in the neighbourhood, and the flour returned to the peasants for their food. Wheat flour was also bought for baking in the village bread oven. It was a short circuit.
Visitors will be able to visit the mill and attend a grinding demonstration during the European Heritage Days on 16 and 17 September 2023, from 10 am to 12 pm and from 2 pm to 6 pm (free or guided tours).