Old Mill

The Hamoir mill, the oldest of the three mills in Soulme, beautifully restored, occupies a peaceful site along the Hermeton. The existence of the Soulme mill is recorded as early as the 15th century. In 1466, during the sack of the city of Dinant, the Burgundian troops destroyed the "molin de Gosegnée". The Soulme mill was then located in the territory of Gochenée, on the same bank of the Hermeton. The road that connects it today to Soulme dates only from the 19th century, and it is likely that at that time the path to Gochenée was also easier. In the early 16th century, the mill was rebuilt. It became a communal mill, and the miller paid an annual rent that appears in the records of the abbey of Florennes. The records of the abbey of Florennes indicate, as early as 1501, that the Soulme mill was held by inheritance by Henry Thomas, originally from Gochenée. He paid the abbey an annual rent of 111 gold francs or the equivalent value in kind. On May 20, 1536, the abbot concluded another lease of the communal mill for the benefit of a certain A. Andry. In its current state, the Soulme mill dates back to the 17th century or early 18th century. The date of 1774 is engraved in various places, notably on a stone near the bief which is inscribed: The bief, built by the miller Willeval in the second half of the 17th century, brings water to the mill from the dam located upstream while passing underground beneath the mill courtyard. The bief is again above ground a few meters before the first wheel, and the flow is regulated by two sluices. The Soulme mill has been classified as a monument, and the lands surrounding it as a site by Royal Decree of December 6, 1976. On October 5, 1995, a decree from the Ministry of the Walloon Region classified as monuments the structures built upstream and downstream of the Soulme mill, namely, upstream, the dam and the regulating sluices on the Hermeton, as well as the canalized bief and the sluices preceding the wheel; downstream, on the communal path, the bridge over the Hermeton and the culvert on the bief.

Val et Oli