When the winepress walked with the animals
Not all force came from the water.
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In 1758, the vicar João Lobo de Sousa described two olive oil mills powered by oxen and beasts. The parish was particularly dry in the summer and had no mills or pisões. Many residents resorted to neighboring parishes to grind cereal and make olive oil.
The same memory refers to small waters coming from the Orada, held in prey to benefit the fields. Watering and grinding did not necessarily depend on the same solution: here, storing water to cultivate coexisted with resorting to the force of the animals in the mill. It is the portrait of a work organization in 1758, not an inventory of current equipment.
Where did the force come from?
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Save water to the fields
Store water coming from the hill →Move mills without watering fields
A river that moved but did not water →Use water to work wool
Water also worked wool →
Source and context
Basto Land Museum — Parish Memories of 1758: Alvite
Accessed: . Editorial summary; the date of consultation is not the date of the facts.