The Brenscheid mills are a very special ensemble of monuments in WasserEisenLand and demonstrate that the abundance of water in South Südwestfalen prompted people as early as the Middle Ages to use the natural energy of streams and rivers with the help of water wheels.
The mill is a two-storey building with a pitched roof and is divided into a half-timbered section, in which the grinding gears are located, and a quarrystone section, which houses the bakery. In front of the gable end is a baking oven (also called a 'Backes'), which has the shape of a small house and is operated from inside the mill building. The stream water dammed upstream of the mill originally ran onto two mill wheels, each of which drove one of the two grinding gears: the 'grist grinding gear', which coarsely ground the grain, and the 'fine grinding gear'.
During the later restoration, the two water wheels were replaced by a single one. Both grinding gears have a fixed bottom stone and a movable stone above it, the so-called 'runner'. The grain delivered in sacks is tipped from the platform into the vibrating hoppers. From there, it passes through a hole in the runner onto the rotating bottom stone, which grinds the grain. During the fine grinding process, the flour then falls into the so-called 'bag mill', a tube made of gauze, which is shaken vigorously to separate the flour from the bran. The Kornmühle was first mentioned in a document in 1593 (probably built in 1588) and was under the control of the respective sovereigns. Initially it was owned by the Dukes of Cleves, who were also Counts of the Mark, but from 1609 it belonged to the Electors of Brandenburg and later Kings of Prussia.
The Brenscheid mill was a so-called 'Bannmühle', i.e. the farmers in the area were forced to have their grain ground in this and no other mill - a regulation dating back to the Middle Ages. Around 1700, there were around 800 farmers who were subject to this 'grinding obligation'. They all lived in Wiblingwerde, Winkeln and the surrounding area. As this landscape was not particularly productive and the farmers remained poor, the mill's income was correspondingly low.
Originally, the mill was only ever leased on a temporary basis before Jacob Hermann Brenscheid became the first leaseholder in 1765, whose family managed the mill for three generations. It then became private property in 1839: It was acquired by Johann Diedrich vom Hagen, in whose family ownership it has remained to this day.
With the abolition of compulsory grinding at the beginning of the 19th century, the economic situation of the mill deteriorated. Grain processing increasingly shifted to large-scale operations, so that the mill had to be closed in 1952. Attached to the mill is a bakery, which was newly established in the first half of the 19th century. Bread had already been baked in the mill until the beginning of the 18th century, but when the 'excise duty' was introduced in Prussia in 1717 - a kind of consumer tax for the towns - bread could only be baked for commercial purposes in the towns. It was only when the excise duty was abolished around 100 years later that a bakery could be set up again in the Brenscheid mill to supply the rural population with bread. Together with the Kornmühle, it was then closed in 1952.
In the years that followed, no repairs were carried out and the entire building began to fall into disrepair. Since 1975, the mill has been restored from the ground up: The brickwork, roof and bakehouse were repaired, the grinder was renovated and a new water wheel was built. As the original bakery equipment was no longer available, it was necessary to use equipment from a bakery in Nachrodt that had been closed down. In 1984, bread was baked again for the first time in 32 years. Since then, regular baking demonstrations have been held again. Baking demonstrations with sales every month on the first Saturday from May to October - inside tour of the mill by appointment
Contact: Mr. Hans-Otto Camphausen, Tel. 0 23 52 / 2 21 50.
There are five scenic themed walking trails around the mills - suitable for teaching:
- Trout trail (20 min.)
- Owl trail (60 min.)
- Wild boar trail (90 min.)
- Fox trail (120 min.)
- Pleasure trail (day tours with recommended stops)
The Brenscheid Kornmühle is an attraction at >WasserEisenLand- Industriekultur Südwestfalen.