A Woodworker’s Dream

Benoit Lechevallier starting the Ruston & Hornsby motor of Saint Gabriel Flour Mill.  Restoration of the Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill, Saint-Gabriel-Brecy, France.
Benoit Lechevallier starting the Ruston & Hornsby motor of Saint Gabriel Flour Mill.  Restoration of the Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill, Saint-Gabriel-Brecy, France.Benoit Lechevallier starting the Ruston & Hornsby motor of Saint Gabriel Flour Mill.
This roller mill, built in the workshops H. & G. Rose brothers of Poissy, is part of the crushing equipment of Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill. Its hull of metal and wood envelops cast iron cylinders that grind wheat grains falling from glass supply globes. Several successive passages between different cylinders are necessary to obtain a white flour.Restored roller mill and glass supply globes from Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill.
Close-up view of the restored roller mill and glass supply globes from Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill.This roller mill, built in the workshops H. & G. Rose brothers of Poissy, is part of the crushing equipment of Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill. Its hull of metal and wood envelops cast iron cylinders that grind wheat grains falling from glass supply globes. Several successive passages between different cylinders are necessary to obtain a white flour.
Feet of the plansifters on the top floor of the Saint Gabriel Flour Mill.Feet of the plansifters on the top floor of the Saint Gabriel Flour Mill.  Invented by a Hungarian miller at the end of the nineteenth century, plansifters have improved the sifting of flour. Set up in the mill in 1930, these large wooden cabinets animated by a circular movement contain a succession of sieves, wooden frames covered with cloth, crossed by a flour of finer and finer.
Sack of flour in a factory window of the Saint Gabriel Mill.Sack of flour in a factory window of the Saint Gabriel Flour Mill.  Restoration of the Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill, Saint-Gabriel-Brecy, France.
Flour shafts made of pitch pine at Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill.Flour shafts made of pitch pine at Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill.  Restoration of the Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill, Saint-Gabriel-Brecy, France.
Testing laboratory of the Saint Gabriel Flour Mill.Testing laboratory for flour qualities and properties at the Saint Gabriel Flour Mill.  Restoration of the Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill, Saint-Gabriel-Brecy, France.
Unrestored roller mill from the Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill.Unrestored roller mill and laboratory at Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill.  Restoration of the Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill, Saint-Gabriel-Brecy, France.
Sack of flour and shafts at the Saint Gabriel Mill.Sack of flour and shafts at the Saint Gabriel Mill.  Restoration of the Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill, Saint-Gabriel-Brecy, France.
Detail of the motor fabricated by Ruston & Hornsby, UK at Saint Gabriel Mill.Detail of the motor fabricated by Ruston & Hornsby, UK at Saint Gabriel Mill. Restoration of the Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill, Saint-Gabriel-Brecy, France.
Priming the motor of the Saint Gabriel Flour Mill.Priming the motor of the Saint Gabriel Flour Mill.  Restoration of the Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill, Saint-Gabriel-Brecy, France.
Detail of the motor fabricated by Ruston & Hornsby, UK at the Saint Gabriel Flour Mill.Detail of the motor fabricated by Ruston & Hornsby, UK at the Saint Gabriel Flour Mill. Restoration of the Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill, Saint-Gabriel-Brecy, France.
Detail of the motor fabricated by Ruston & Hornsby, UK at Saint Gabriel Mill.Detail of the motor fabricated by Ruston & Hornsby, UK at Saint Gabriel Mill.  Restoration of the Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill, Saint-Gabriel-Brecy, France.
Exterior chimney and façade of the Saint Gabriel Flour Mill.Exterior chimney and façade of the Saint Gabriel Flour Mill.  Restoration of the Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill, Saint-Gabriel-Brecy, France.

A Woodworker’s Dream | Visiting the Saint Gabriel Flour Mill

Contemplating current trends in gluten-free bread, flour-less cakes and slow food, it was thought provoking to step back to post-war France and learn about technology and engineering during the industrial revolution.   This opportunity arose during a weekend visit to the town of Saint Gabriel de Brécy, Normandy.

The Saint Gabriel Flour Mill, now inscribed into the Industrial Patrimony of the Calvados region, is a magnificent example of a once-working flour mill that is being carefully restored by its owners.  Closed permanently in 1975, the mill was purchased in 2012 by Isabelle Laïlle and Benoît Lechevallier (carpenter/cabinet maker).  Isabelle and Benoît have rallied local inhabitants, many of whose family members once worked at the mill, to revive the memory of this working environment and an association has been created for this purpose.  The diverse professions of this group have enabled the successful restoration to impeccable working condition of a hydraulic turbine engine fabricated by Ruston & Hornsby (UK), of which only two remain in the world, regulated by a Watt Ball Regulator.

This Watt Ball Regulator monitors the flow of water entering the hydraulic turbine. Restoration of the Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill, Saint-Gabriel-Brecy, France.
This Watt Ball Regulator monitors the flow of water entering the hydraulic turbine.

It is interesting to read in Flour Milling, A Theoretical and Practical Handbook of Flour Manufacture by Peter Kozmin (1917) that although flour milling in France during the eighteenth century was superior to other countries, milling techniques and industrial life in France following the French revolution and continental wars were stagnant compared to America and England.  When French industry revived, newer types of Anglo-American flour mills were adopted, many of which were built by English firms.

Kozmin goes on to say that the innovative Frenchman, however, had much to do about the industrial conception and design of their mills:  “But the vivacious and creative mind of the French was not satisfied in the further development of mill building with imitating the English and Americans. French engineers have introduced many original inventions, chiefly in the sphere of transportation, cleaning of grain, and dressing of the product.  In building their mills, they excelled in the beauty of architecture and proportionality of sizes.  One of the greatest inventions of the French of that time is the cleaner and separator, the most indispensable machine of the grain cleaning department. Doubtless the development of milling techniques pushed the question of perfecting the water wheel, adapted then almost exclusively in mills, to the front and it was Fourneyrond who produced the first turbine. This was of no less importance to the development of milling in France than was Watt’s steam engine in England.

After a private tour of all five floors of the Saint Gabriel Flour Mill it is evident that ingenuity, longevity, performance and design were all of part of the package in those days.  From the crushing equipment built with hearty pitch pine and cast iron in the workshops of H. & G. Rose brothers of Poissy, to the wooden plansifters, to the slanted flour shafts running five flours downwards at odd angles and mill machinery, the quality of fabrication “build to last” has insured the future of this mill as an example of industrial patrimony.

For a woodworker, the restoration of machinery made of noble materials to a workable state must be a real pleasure, not to mention the rhythmic sound of the turbine engine which currently provides full hydroelectric power to his home and to the mill’s secondary activity, a charming bed and breakfast.

Moulin de Saint Gabriel, Chambres d’hôte

Benoit Lechevallier showing the turbine engine of Saint Gabriel Mill Restoration of the 19th century Saint-Gabriel Flour Mill, Saint-Gabriel-Brecy, France