The steenmeulen tourist site
5 minutes from exit 13 on the A25 motorway, at the crossroads between Belgium and France and Lille and the Opal Coast, the Steenmeulen mill and museum in Terdeghem (59) is an ideal stopover or meeting point for your group outings in the Hauts-de-France region in French Flanders.
Download the BrochureThe Steenmeulen welcomes families and individuals of all ages. Joseph & Vera adapt the visits to the public and have set up numerous devices (models, diagrams, etc.) to facilitate the understanding of the tools of the time.
Learn more +The Friends of Steenmeulen also welcome groups of more than 20 people at a preferential rate. By coach, carriage, motorbike group, old cars or any other configuration, we have a large parking area that can accommodate many vehicles of all sizes.
Learn more +Each visit can be adapted to suit the educational programme of the participants, whatever their age or level. We welcome day care centres, primary and secondary school classes as well as university and vocational training students.
Learn more +a unique tourist hub
Located in the heart of the Flanders mountains in the North, the Steenmeulen site is at the centre of a region that is rich in landscape, culture and history. This region is unique in that it offers a panorama of 4 very special mills!
Visit the Steenmeulen tourist site
The present stone mill ("Steen Meulen" in Flemish), otherwise known as the mill of St Arnould (patron saint of brewers), was built in place of a pivot mill, which had been blown away by the particularly strong winds at this location.
Mr. Michel Markey, a descendant of a milling family (fourth generation), took over the mill in a very sad state. Restorations were undertaken with the means of the time: the new wings were assembled with the force of arms and horses.
Over the years, Michel Markey, an inventive and experienced miller, made many improvements that were ahead of their time. The Steenmeulen is thus the only mill in France equipped with a safety device that prevents the mechanism from turning upside down!
The wings break. With the help of his son Joseph, a specialist in mechanical engineering, Michel Markey reinstalled new wings. The latter are built identically while benefiting from the most modern manufacturing techniques. It is said that since then "the Steenmeulen turns at the slightest zephyr"!
Joseph Markey, on his retirement, took over and kept the mill going. Passionate about technology, he developed the site to open it to the public. In the 2000s, the Museum of Flemish Rural Life (Marcel Leupe's collection), the Museum of Agricultural Machinery and Energy were successively established.
In 2007, the mill was restored to its original potential with the re-installation of oil millstones on the ground floor. In addition to the three pairs of grain millstones, the mill can now drive the pair of oil millstones. In 2008, an oil press (donated by mill carpenter Eric Vanleene) completed the oil installation.
The building at the foot of the mill collapses. A complete restoration is necessary! This allowed the installation of a heavy fuel engine, identical to the one used before Michel Markey's arrival in 1938. This engine drove the mill mechanism, replacing the broken wings.
Since 2010, the site has been home to a flour mill from the Thybaut factory in Fretin. Since 2011, a didactic installation has been used to understand how these "modern" machines work.
In 2014, Joseph Markey reconstructed his parents' home as it was when they arrived. This is in the small house at the foot of the mill where his parents actually lived until the end of the 1990s.
The miller has been working all summer on the construction of a reproduction of a Persian mill, the ancestor of windmills, and intends to show his visitors how this ingenious ancestor worked!
In collaboration with the communication agency Go Online, Joseph Markey has published a leaflet about the four mills in the region between the mountains, of which the Steenmeulen is one. This little booklet, "Terdeghem - Steenvoorde, the region of the 4 mills", a real tourist and historical guide to the mills of the region, is available for sale at Steenmeulen and in the tourist offices of Steenvoorde and a few other offices in the vicinity, depending on availability!
The Friends of the Steenmeulen have completely reorganised the museum on the Steenmeulen site during the year. A necessary reorganisation for greater clarity and more fluid visits.
The miller reconstructs the workshop of his trade as it was originally. It contains all the machines and tools used in the miller's daily life and today completes the visit to the museum.
This year, Joseph & Vera wish to develop the small park next to the mill and its Persian friend into a small area where it is nice to rest.
With the idea of providing visitors with a comprehensive overview of flour production over the centuries and continents, Joseph Markey has reproduced this horse mill. Named "Rosmeule" in Flemish, it is a reduced replica of the horse mill built by the Yser Houck association in Volckerinckhove.