The History of the Mill
A dive into the past
The Moulin Sainte Marie comes from the project of a textile activity using the driving force of the Canche, the latter, lacking regularity in its flow after dry summers, the establishment was made in Frévent. The building, already built in 1856, was taken over by a member of Olivier's family, installing a mill to process the cereals produced by the many surrounding farmers, with a bakery occupying part of the buildings.
Nicolas Fatien, Olivier's great-grandfather, was the miller there from the 1920s until after the Second World War. Retiring, he handed it over to his daughter Marie-Thérèse and his son-in-law Victor Hecquet. The latter carried out a major renovation of the machines for the preparation of wheat, the crushing, the sieving of the products and between these stages their transport by pneumatics in an air flow instead of bucket chains. When Victor died suddenly in 1976, the mill stopped; his widow remained there until her death in 2016.
Olivier, Stéphanie and their children settled there and carried out major work to rejuvenate the premises as well as the environment with a constant concern to preserve the historic and family character of the place.