Valorisation Patrimoine Sud Tarn
Panel 16
Water, a source of energy for wool washing...
The water from rivers flowing down from the Montagne Noire
with crystalline rocks has always been suitable for wool
washing because it does not contain excessive limestone
elements. However, we should not see this as deterministic:
the water quality has not changed, yet fellmongery
has disappeared.
Most importantly, rivers played a significant role by providing
energy from the earliest times until the 20th century.
Hydraulic energy offers several advantages:
1. It is free once the infrastructure is set up (dams, canals, gates, wheel or turbine maintenance).
2. It is non-polluting. The fellmongering process itself polluted the river with natural elements only (soil, twigs, exotic seeds).
3. It is renewable, though with lower flow rates in summer. Workers used this downtime for agricultural work initially and later for vacations.
4. It enabled successive supply to multiple industrial establishments: the Arnette Valley was lined with factories.
Today, waterfalls from several vanished mills continue to generate electrical energy.