The Moulin du Clout is reputed to date from the time of the French Revolution over 200 years ago. The purposes of the mill were to grind grain into flour and to crush walnuts in order to extract the oil. Four milling rings can be seen, three with traditional millstones still in place and the fourth a stone crushing wheel in a circular trough. The driving mechanism, in the basement below, used four separate horizontal mill-wheels of a type unusual in Britain but still in use in France. Two of the four wheels have been removed to make way for the culvert that drives a modern electric generating turbine. The remaining two can still be seen and might be restored to use. One of these would drive the crushing stone. Much of the mill machinery, including hoists, hoppers, drive shafts, belts and a massive gravity press remain in place.
The electric turbine was installed in 1979 by Moteurs Leroy Somer. We have seen it working but we have not used it. It is capable of providing most of the power requirements of the mill except the heating. There is contact with an engineer who is familiar with the plant.
