LES MOULINS DE SAINTE-PAZANNE

In December 2001, the Malessard mill, on the road to Saint-Hilaire-de-Chaléons, was topped with a new roof and a new skullcap, an important stage in the restoration project undertaken by its owner, Mrs Thomine de Caffarelli. Will this mill, which was the last to operate in Sainte-Pazanne, ever see its wings again?

In 1809, there were 75150 mills in France. A century later, there were still more than 25,000, including 600 in Loire-Inférieure and 150 in the Pays de Retz.

In his study "les lieux dits du pays de Retz", Eloi Guitteny counted 111 mills in 1967, most of them in a poor state of repair. And in Sainte-Pazanne? At the end of the 18th century, there were ten mills in the parish:


the large mill on the route de Nantes
the Ardennes mill on the Petit-Beusse road, which has now disappeared
the "turquois" de la Marche mill, no longer in existence, which was located near No. 27 rue de l'Auditoire
the Baudrin mill, which can still be seen today in the rue de l'Ilette
the moulin neuf, no longer in existence, which stood at the junction of the rue de Bel Air and the rue des Nouies
the moulin de la Coche, of which only the base remains
the Retail mill, whose structure still exists
the Malessard mill
the Grand Cormier mill, of which only a trace is still visible among the brambles
the Cossonnerie mill, at the end of the village, which is in the same condition as the Grand Cormier mill.



Two of these mills, Ardennes and Moulin neuf, were seigneurial mills. Ardennes belonged to the seigneury of the same name, while Moulin neuf belonged to the seigneury of Sainte-Pazanne, which was the largest in the parish. As such, the vassals of these two lordships were obliged to have their grain ground at the lord's mill and to bake their bread in the same lord's communal oven.
The other mills belonged either to private individuals, either in their entirety or in joint ownership, or to millers or fariniers. These millers generally belonged to the wealthy class of Sainte-Pazanne's population. A deliberation by the town council establishing the classification of land and houses lists the owners of windmills in Sainte-Pazanne in 1837: the Moulin de la Marche (Berthuzeau); the Grand Cormier (Gloria); the Retail (Fruneau); the Coche (Joseph Moreau); Baudrin (François Ecomard); the Moulin Neuf (Julien Blois); the Moulin d'Ardennes ( M. de la Brosse); the Malessard (M. de Charrette); and the Cossonnerie mill (Pierre Sorin). In 1896, Charles Blois (le Grand Cormier), Pierre Marot (le Malessard) and Pierre Fruneau (le Retail) were listed as millers.

Lucien and Pierre Marot report that "the Malessard mill ran on wind until the 1950s. Its customers came from Sainte-Pazanne, and some from Saint-Hilaire-de-Chaléons, Chéméré and Rouans. We fetched the wheat and returned the flour. We were paid in kind or in cash".

Source: extract from an article in Bulletin No. 05 of the Société historique