The myth of mills

[Imperial Dave]

https://www.medievalists.net/2025/01/the-myth-of-mills-bridging-antiquity-and-medieval-innovation/?utm_source=gravitec&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=Push%20Notification

Windy was furious...

[Keraunos]

...but Dusty was happy?

[Ian61]

I am sure one of Steven Saylor Books mentions Roman water mills and he is fairly reliable.

[Erpingham]

I'm struggling with what this article is saying.  Haven't we known for ages that water mills continued from Antiquity into the Middle Ages and onwards? That medieval people could do complicated water engineering?

[Swampster]

It seems to say that the myth of mills is their invention in antiquity but their expansion was medieval. The paper then seems to argue that they were used in antiquity, their use declined but didn't disappear in early medieval times and then there was rapid expansion in the 12th century.
Seems like pretty much the same thing.

On a purely local basis, the Romans would have had little use for mills in my area but when the local monastery was established in the mid 12th century they soon started using mills for metallurgy, with a good deal of hydro-engineering.

[Erpingham]

Cistercians in particular seemed to be very into water engineering, altering river channels and building conduits.  I revisited Rievaulx last  year and was interested in the amount of work on the water supply for both domestic and industrial use that was done.  The mill was at the end of the chain and the millpond was apparently rather unsavoury, as the water that filled it came from the drains 

[Ian61]

The mill was at the end of the chain and the millpond was apparently rather unsavoury, as the water that filled it came from the drains 

Ugh!

[Imperial Dave]

 

[Erpingham]

At the end of its life, the abbey had a tannery and a fulling mill which dumped waste into the drains, along with the domestic waste of the abbey. They flowed into a millpond called a "stank" (I wonder why?) which fed the abbey's waterpowered forge. After the Dissolution, the forge remained in operation and a new water mill powering a blast furnace was also built (the mill powered the bellows). And, yes, I did get the guidebook out 

[Nick Harbud]

Waterwheels and their associated mills seem to hold a fascination for many people - it's the sight of enormous machinery in action and, possibly, the thought of what might happen if parts of one's anatomy were to get caught in the moving machinery.

Before the invention of steam, such devices were really the only available power source that was greater than a horse.  Consequently, they were used for all sorts of industry up to and including the early days of the industrial revolution, for example Arkwright's Mill in Cromford and Quarry Bank Mill in Styal.

I find it amazing that people are still able to write articles about them as if they were some wonderful new discovery.

 

[Erpingham]

Watching and listening to watermills is something I find fascinating.

[Keraunos]

I have bought and painted 3 6mm scale watermills from Battlescale miniatures (3 because I had forgotten that 1 had been on an earlier order and then had an unnoticed fat finger error on the second order!).  They look lovely but make no sound and I have not yet fought a scenario where I could use them