Northern France, cradle of industrial milling

In the Lille metropolis, milling is not a matter of windmills but of factories. It was here, in the 19th century, that industrial milling supplanted traditional milling, driven by merchants who invested in roller mills.

The cradle of industrial milling

Industrial milling appeared in the 19th century and quickly supplanted artisanal milling. In the North, a rich grain land linked to the port of Dunkirk, the great mills set up along the Deûle and the waterways.

The Grands Moulins de Paris at Marquette-lez-Lille

The most spectacular witness is the Grands Moulins de Paris mill at Marquette-lez-Lille. The factory closed in 1989; its building, listed as a historic monument in 2011, now stands in an advanced state of ruin — a wasteland that tells, on its own, the past power of northern milling. The Meunerie lilloise, on the banks of the Deûle, had been absorbed by the Grands Moulins de Paris group as early as 1928.

An industrial memory to preserve

Between wastelands to rehabilitate and converted buildings, the North concentrates the memory of French industrial milling. A memory in concrete and silos, very different from the water mills of the West — but just as founding.

To go further

• History of milling in France
• From wheat to flour
• Alsace, from water mills to the Grands Moulins of Strasbourg

Sources

• CAUE du Nord — Flour mill, the Grands Moulins de Paris, Marquette-lez-Lille
• Tudchentil — La minoterie, historical methodology manual