LE BARRAGE ET L'ÉCLUSE DE CHEFFES

In 1850, the whole dam was rebuilt and raised; it was fitted with a lock basin with a sluice, which allowed barges loaded with goods to be brought up without hindrance. On the bank, the small house still displays the industrial architecture of that time: guardians of the railway or the canal, the housing was similar. In many riverside villages, flour mills then replaced the small mills inherited from the Middle Ages; these large mills were built in tiers to use the downward movement of grain and flour that was moved mechanically. In an ingenious network of bucket elevators, hoppers, ducts, and screws that the wheels operated, the milling products could be cleaned, sorted and bagged Somewhat out of the way, a tall red brick chimney protruded above the factory roof and spewed out smoke from the steam engine, adding extra power when the waterfall proved insufficient. Unexpected heating was feared as much as the sparks and flames of the machine, which at any moment could ignite the dust of flour or bran, and transform these pretentious constructions into torches: the mills of Pendu in Morannes, Châteauneuf, de la Roussière on the Mayenne, met this sad fate.