On Morilor Valley, some time ago, were strung eight wooden mills used in traditional milling of wheat and corn. They wore names depending on their owners, being private or belonging to the community. For their construction, the handy craftsmen used oak and beech in the municipality.

 The legend

     "Because it was driven out of the village, not being given the permission to build a church, monk Nicodim cursed the river, saying that until the moment when it will be swallowed by the earth, will squirm, hence the spinning the wooden arms of mills on the river, from its source, under the rock, until the down-grade that disappeared. The first three mills built under the stone were of Baluceanu and Ponoreanu families, followed by Raiculescu mill - with two rows of rocks, Tihoi, Martinescu and Cracuceni mill. They were the only mills in Mehedinti county, organised on congregation-families, but families in other villages could also mill here, under an unwritten regulation. Every day from Monday to Friday each family was scheduled to mill. The only obligation of those who used the mill was to keep it clean, but also to bring food for the next "client". The mill was used not only for relatives, people from other areas had accesstoo, but with the same regulations: to clean the mill and to bring food. If a traveler was caught by a storm, he could shelter there, eat what was there, but he should not devastate the space", explains Dumitru Borloveanu, professor of Romanian and French languages at Ponoarele school.”

    The operation principle of the mill was different from the usual mills: the river was conducted through a tube to a barrel, which created pressure. The water was pushing the pallets in the form of tablespoons of the vertical axis, which involve the moving stone, positioned horizontally. Between stone and chimney there were a device, which slipped a larger quantity of ground beans in the milling place depending on the force with which it was stricken due to water pressure.

     This influenced the quality of the flour, but also protected the mill that grinded more quickly. Borloveanu Dumitru took possession of photographs that show Ion Dumitrescu, the last miller in Mills Valley.

Source: Claudia Tutuman