The mill goes clatter ...

Next time you visit your grandma, why not ask her if she knows this song:

The mill clatters by the babbling brook, clip-clop, clack.By day and by night, the miller was always awake, clip-clop, clack.He ground the grain into hearty bread,and once you had it, there was no need to dread,clip-clop, clack. clip-clop, clack. clip-clop, clack.

The song was written at a time when there was a mill in almost every village. The grain harvested by farmers in their fields was ground into flour here. Flour was needed to bake bread.

Mills used to be very important. They feature in old fairy tales and in the story of Max and Moritz. Wind and water from streams and rivers were used to power the mills. The people who worked in a mill were called millers. Apparently there were so many of them that Müller is still a common surname today.

A small village called Lage lies in the county of Bentheim. It has had a watermill for 750 years, though it has been renovated several times over the centuries. The water of the Dinkel River flows beneath two waterwheels, driving them. At other watermills, water flows down onto the wheels from above.

A few meters before the waterwheels, two beams jut diagonally up out of the river. In winter, they are meant to stop ice floes from damaging the waterwheels. The water that flows beneath the waterwheels collects in a millpond called a millpool. It then continues along the River Dinkel.

A thick wooden shaft transfers power from the mill wheels to other large wheels inside the building. In the grain mill, grain passes between two millstones and is ground into flour. The mill is still working today.

In the past, farmers also grew flax. Fibres can be extracted from this plant to make clothing and cloth. The seeds contain linseed oil, which can be used as cooking oil and for many other purposes. At the mill in Lage, the water wheels also powered two stone millstones. They pressed the valuable oil out of the flax seeds. They still work today.

This mill once belonged to a ruler who owned a great deal of land and earned money by leasing out the mill. The farmers in Lage worked the land, which also belonged to the ruler. They had their grain milled into flour at the mill.

The grain mill remained in operation here until 1959. Then the last miller died, and no successor could be found. Today, members of a mill association look after the Lager Watermill and are happy to show visitors how it works.