ECLUSE DE MIRWAULT

Mirwault lock

The Mirwault dam has existed since at least 1414, when a cloth mill and the Fontenailles mill were mentioned. It was fitted with a marinière gate after 1537. When the river was canalized in the 19th century, it was the first mill on the lower Mayenne to be fitted with a lock. The plans for the lock were drawn up by the ingénieur ordinaire des ponts et Chaussées d'Angers in 1847, and the work was awarded by tender to the contractor Piednoir on 29 January 1847. As soon as work had begun, it was interrupted in 1848. A second tender was awarded on 20 May 1853 to André Bouleau of Château-Gontier. Construction was supervised by Pasquier-Vauvilliers, an ordinary engineer. The lock was opened to navigation in September 1856. It necessitated the removal of the three mills on the right bank, which were replaced by a single new mill. The dam, which was merely consolidated, was swept away by the floods of 1872. It was rebuilt in 1874 and 1875, under the supervision of the Ponts et Chaussées engineer Legras, by Château-Gontier contractors Demange and Massoteau, who were chosen in the tender held on 10 November 1873. The lockhouse was extended in the last quarter of the 20th century.