Melinsey Mill

There has been a mill at Melinsey since at least 1210 and the name is from the Cornish word melinjy, meaning mill-house. The building there today dates from 1565. The mill originally had two sets of millstones: one for grinding flour and the set that remain were used to produce animal fodder until 1928. The remaining stones are made from local granite but it was desirable for the stones used for grinding flour not to produce pieces of grit so these would likely have been a more fine-grained stone imported from Brittany. The building fell into disrepair after it closed but has since been restored and was opened to the public in 1996. Prior to the 19th Century, all of the mill mechanism would have been made from wood but it was replaced with cast iron in 1882.