Old paper mill Delvosal - Hotel Le moulin des Ramiers - Crupet

On the right bank of the Crupet stream, 300m downstream from the keep, a large building attracts attention both for its unusual dimensions and for its genuine architectural quality.

In 1996 it was transformed into a hotel, le Moulin des Ramiers . Before that, during the last quarter of the 18th century, it was a paper mill and in the middle of the following century it became a grain mill. The name that this place recently bore certainly refers to its first function: the paper trade.

In 1769, Jean-Mathieu Delvosal received permission to build his mill. The building of limestone blocks has certainly been through a lot, but its initial decoration remains broadly visible. The south wing is indisputably the best preserved, probably because it housed the engine room and living quarters from the beginning.

In 1850 the paper mill was converted into a grain mill . The works were so radical that they completely changed the water design of the past. The engine room was then installed inside the building itself on the one hand and with a new inner wall on the other: to the north of it, a trap door allowed to regulate the flow rate at the beginning of the decline, the paddlewheel and the drainage channel. The latter continued in an underground channel under the courtyard in front of the building and under the street to end up in the stream. These underground pipes are now bricked up but part of the engine room can still be seen in the lobby of the hotel.

Willem Vandenameele