Watermills thesis summary chapter 1. Resumo do tesis sobre os moinhos, primeiro capítulo

I finished my thesis on watermills of Monção last July. It's WAY past time to share some of the findings, ideas, issues.

Inspired by Derek and other folks who had helped with research and ideas during my write-up, I really should post more about the vast array of watermills here and the opportunities they represent.


Two of hundreds of watermills around Monção

So here goes, a brief synopsis of my year-long research for thesis, one day a publication in Portuguese I hope. The title pretty much sums up what I was looking at:
"Grindstones to Generators: Opportunities and options for watermills in Northern Portugal"

I guess I'll summarise chapter by chapter, following the flow of the doc., though ditching the dreadful moribund language that is unavoidable in academia. A thesis is supposed to ask a question, then attempt a thorough answer through research of existing literature, then some original research (cos someone else's research hasn't covered it yet), elaborate conclusions and deliver the answer. Simple in theory, a nightmare in reality.

My question was - and remains - this: Can the watermills of Monção and Northern Portugal be restored and used to generate electricity, and to be used again as mill stones, oil presses, etc. in a way that is profitable and viable? I say profitable here to mean that costs are covered, that, like in the past, the energy and finances invested are recovered through the services delivered by the mill itself.

OK, I'm gonna use this post to go through the introduction and first chapter which covers broader context of the study and little bit about the region of Monção in which the study takes place.

So, context: I'm looking at watermills in the knowledge of climate change and imminent global peak oil: the twin fossil fuel crises of our generation. Crises we can chose to ignore, deny or confront through profound changes in our lifestyle. Changes primarily related to less of everything: all that stuff made by the magic that is cheap fossil fuels and pollutes some part of the biosphere. In fact the scale of change, or transition as it is often called, is so vast and fundemental that I wonder if it is even possible. The vast majority of people in rich and poor worlds would certainly not vote for it, nor actively seek this approach. The change that is needed means an end to the economic model on which all rich industrialised societies have been constructed over the last few hundred years. No more growth economics, the launching of low carbon localised agriculture and manufacturing of all goods and energy systems. A reverse of globalisation. The beginning of an era of ecological agriculture that is unknown in the history of mankind - as discussed in this brilliant article.

In short, we're in deep shit and it's seriously unlikely we have the appetite or organisation to pull ourselves out in time. But we can still try, and every little helps. Every new person that is enightened to the destructive state of affairs of our mall-mentality world is another convert. Every ecological building site, every local garden (every school kid in an edible school garden project!) every attempt to produce heat and light from ambient energy is a step towards a viable alternative. Into this struggle against the tide of consumerism and profit, exploitation and pollution we place each of our efforts to live less harmfully.

It's into this context that I want to look at watermills. Once they enjoyed a pivotall role in local communities in Portugal - grinding flour for bread, pressing oil from ancient olives, milling local chestnut and oak for building homes. The former state of local roads meant there was no alternative - communities were self sufficient by necessity, and design followed. Unlike the feudal estates and fiefdoms of Britain - where community owned watermills were destroyed and folks forced to use the "Manor Mills" - people here in Northern Portugal seemed to have owned the land they live on for generations, centuries even (unheard of in Scotland!). Every village with even a tiny stream built as many mills as they could, allowing milling in every community. I've heard tell of rivers choked with fish feeding off the debris falling from these mills. Mannah from heaven - food for ever. (Until they brought in pesticides and fertilizers, and now most rivers are virtually fish-free and barren).

Rio Minho - Galicia (Spain) on the right, Portugal on the left. The Atlantic straight ahead.

First off, an intro into the geographical zone: Monção, a county in the far North of Portugal, sharing a rivery border with Galicia called the river Minho. With rainfall equal to central Scotland (1200 mm/ year) there is plenty water here. Watermills are found aplenty. So many were built in the last few hundred years that by the time I tracked down an old register of watermills (discussed here) I calculated that there used to be one watermill for every 30 people. Having created a database of the 660 odd mils registered in Monção (back in the 1940s) I transfered them to a basic map that I meant as a draft, which I forgot about until it was way too late. So here it is - the location (by parish (freguesia) within the county.



There are three types of watermills here:

First, the azenha, or vertical, low breast-shot wheel meaning that water passes underneath the wheel, but at a slight fall (thanks Nikita for this drawing).

There aren't many of these in Monção, and none I could find intact at all. They used to be located in the last kilometer of the Mouro river, a chunky tributory of the Minho, with an average flow of 4m3 per second.

Second, comes the Rodete, or Tub-mill. The water enters the tub through a slit on the side where the channel is built, and hits a cross of wood that is connected to the axle (which in turn directly drives the grindstone above). There is no bottom to the barrel so water passes through easily. The main advantage of these is that they can work underwater - when the river swells during winter this is useful.















Third, and probably the most plentiful in the county is the horizontal rodizio watermill, which uses a design that is used in Nepal, Palestine, Shetland Islands, Ireland and loads of other places. A design that has worked since about the 3rd Century. Here it is known as the Moinho de Montanha (the mountain mill).

I went to look at so many watermills in this county of , 40 times smaller than South Yorkshire in England, yet with over 663 watermills registered in 1941. That means there used to be one watermill for every 30 people around here. Impressive. But given the state of the roads in the old days not that surprising. Everything had to be produced and processed locally. How communications changes technology...

Next I looked at the history of horizontal watermills (as these make up the vast majority around here). There's some fiery debate raging about where they first emerged, but I sided with the voices that sounded most informed, as articulated in Bethold Moog's seminal work on this subject. Referring to various historians over the centuries he argues that the first watermill was indeed horizontal: obvious really as it's much simpler than the vertical type given the direct axle (no gearing needed from horizontal axle to vertical grinding shaft). He also shows that they most probably first emerged somewhere in China or the Himalayas (Asia Minor wherever that is).




It took centuries before European peasantry got their head around milling. We're told that it was the Romans with their famous engineering team who were responsible for adapting watermill technology and spreading it accross their pillaged nations. They also came up with gearing and vertical watermills.

It's interesting to see from Moog's map of the spread of horizontal watermills around Europe how many areas were left out: most of Northern Europe seem to have opted for vertical mills, while Southern Europe, Scandanavia, Ireland, NW Scotland and her islands went horizontal.

Horizontal watermill distribution around Europe. The shapes represent different types of blade form andwater channel design, which I have on a hand drawn page in anyone is interested.

Other watermill scholars (Lucas, et al, 1953) talk about how the emergence of the feudal system around the 10th and 11th century imposed regulations to prevent home-grinding of corn to ensure the monopoly of the centralised and taxable milling services of the Lords (the Lodge). Typical! And amazing to see how this never happened in Portugal, where every second family had their own mill. It seems this happened all over Southern Europe. Were the local lords too unorganised or just left-leaning liberals? In any case, the vertical watermill with its higher power output clearly went on to become the "workhorse of European industry" until the industrial revolution.

So that's more or less it for the first chapter summary. Next installment looks at how power is generated from water, different types of hydro turbine and which could be most suitable for traditional watermills. I may need some prodding to sit down and actually get it out there...

Thesis on watermills to generators

I just realised that I can share my thesis with anyone if they are interested. Here is a link to google docs for:

abstract, contents pages, etc.

the introduction

the conclusion

Let me know if these even work... And if you want to see any of the actual chapters - these are just opening and closing sections.

Photo: Senhor and Senhora Gonçalvez, by their functioning grain mill on the river Mouro. Interviewed for the thesis - which also gives a rough idea of how much electricity could be produced from their mill, while maintaining their flour milling service.

Survey on watermills

I have started the social research bit of my watermills renovation thesis. If you have a watermill and have a few minutes to answer some questions, have a look here.

Of course mostly I have to go and ask people this stuff directly, which takes hours, days. Weeks in fact: to locate the owners, find out what time/where they are. Introduce the issue, me, the survey, what, why. for whom and so on... As I made so many changes to the survey (Monica being the master editor) I didn't have time to translate into Portuguese, so I have to explain each question with my fairly basic grasp of the language. It has seemed to work, albeit with several promptings in some cases.

This couple in the picture are in their 70s, still working away on the land, and running one of the remaining grinding mills in the region. What quality of flour! What simplicity of technology!

Such interesting results. Most owners are over 65 years old, live on the land, have let their watermills go to ruin because there's no longer a market for milled corn or wheat. Nor much of local production of these products, except to fatten the pigs. In fact, we usually ended up talking about the demise of local agriculture, how there are so few subsidies or support from the state. Agriculture in general is, they think, at the bottom of the Government's priority list.

Most people hadn't heard of climate change - at least in terms of dangerous levels of greenhouse gas emissions; urgent need to reduce emissions or global climate will go haywire and all that. Instead they were familiar with local changes over the course of their lifetime, "it used to be much colder in winters", or, "now there's a changable climate - it's sunny in winter, can be pouring in July" and so on.

I also had a bunch of questions on peak oil. Despite the huge oil price rises last year, almost none of those interviewed had heard that global oil production could soon fail to meet global demand, leading to price instablity, economic and social chaos, etc.

This seems odd, given the potential severity of the situation. Probably the highest profile report so far on this was by Robert Hirsch, for the US Department of Energy (DoE) back in 2005 or so. The DoE apparantly shelved his report when it first came out because of his fairly alarming conclusions. His report can be seen here.

Further, the impact of peak oil on agricluture and food production is seriously disturbing. Surely any rural community should be worried, and getting ready for less fuel-hungry food systems. Richard Heinberg, probably the best known author and speaker on peak oil, describes our current food supply predicament in his usual eloquent and concise manner in this article.

But all this was a kind of background context to the watermill questions. It forms part of my thesis introduction into watermill renovation, so I thought I should add it to my survey. Anyway, upshot of survey is:

• almsot all interviewed showed interest in mill renovation
• didn't know you could generate electricity or hot water from the mills
• would be interested in knowing more about the options
• don't have much money to invest
• would be interested in partial investment if Govt / EU / whatever funds could help
• are interested in using mills as part of a new eco-tourism watermill trail (cheap shelter, cleared river access routes for mountain biking or walking).

More later

Old watermill - reliable electricity - it works!

Last week Nikita and I visited Chris Geake and his family in the Green of Central Portugal, somewhere North of Coimbra in picturesque rolling hills and woodlands.

Chris is the first person I have yet come accross to have installed a micro-hydro electric system in an old watermill. I had to visit.

Like most old watermills in Portugal, there is a water channel running a hundred meters or so from a diversion weir on the main river. The channel carries around 100 litres per second (though we didn't measure it while I was there).

Also like most watermills here drop (head) between the water channel and the space where the horizontal wheel would have been (or where a hydro-turbine could be) is only about 1.6m, which is really low, too low for most hydro engineers to get very excited about.

But this is the challenge: finding a system that can generate enough power, or mechanical energy, to make the investment worthwhile.

Chris has shown that is is possible, viable and worth the investment. His enthusiam, vision and determination really help too. Here's what he has done:

- made contact with Powerpal's UK distributor. The Powerpal is a wonderfully simple system first designed in Canada by geologist David Seymour who says he was motivated "out of a desire to help bring some electricity to remote parts of the world where the residents considered even a few hundred watts of AC power quite a luxury". He has established a relationship with a workshop in Vietnam where the turbines are assembled.

- Powerpal UK's engineer agreed to come out to help with design and power connection and together with Chris he put it together.

As you can see from the photos, the installation of the turbine is really simple: just build a little channel that feeds into a trough, where the turbine sites. It works on "suction head": a flume below the turbine is set at least 20cm into the water at the bottom of the chamber, so there is a vacuum. The flume is slightly wider at the bottom, so there is a tremendous draw or pull on the water coming through the turbine. The spinning turbine provides rotational force to the generator which send power to the batteries, in a seperate building some 30 m away.

- The powerpal they selected is a 500w capacity system. That means it can generate up to 500 watt hours in one hour. Or 0.5 Kwh. Chris reckons he gets about 10Kwh a day, which is about 300 Kwh per month, potentially 3,600 per year (about the same as a small house might use in a year). As there are times when rainfall is lower, the amount of flow is less, so this cannot be expected year round, but still it's enough to run everything he has in the house, including a washing machine, fridge, low energy lights, etc.

- Their house is not connected to the grid, so instead of paying thousands to the national power company (EDP) to get linked up, they invested a few grand in batteries, invertor and all the other gear needed to provide 220 v power that most application need.

- If he were connected to the grid, and if he wanted to sell that power to EDP, on the new micro-generation tariff (for micro renewable energy systems) he could get 0.18 euros / kwh. So his 3,600 Kwh per year would be equivalent to around 650 euros a year. "Beer money" you might say, but it all adds up.

- Chris has pointed out that he could install a second unit beside the first, thus doubling his output, but as he doesn't really need all that much more, why bother?

- One option for such cases is to use the power to create heat - not in the usual way that dump loads work (heating up water with an element like a kettle does: 1kw in gives 1 kw out, probably less given some losses) but by running heat pump, which requires around 1kw of electrical energy to delivery approx. 3.6 kw of heat. This assumes a radiator or underfloor heating system is in place. In Chris's case, they have plenty of wood avaialble and a wood burning stove, and it probably isn't really worthwhile but for others, it could be more interesting. Knowing how much work it is to source, chop, dry, store and move wood all year for the winter fires, I could be interested, but that's another story.

- Using water from the river doesn't come without problems however. By its nature, it's full of leaves and other debris, as well as living things like fish and eels. These can get drawn down the channel and caught in the turbine blades - only very occassionaly the living things - the leaves and bits of wood are the problem. Without a good screen, he has to spend a fair bit of time clearing the debris from the turbine blades, although most of them, he says, just get flung through it.

He has set up a clever bit of wood that diverts surface floaters, but is keen to talk to someone who can design an angled screed which sits vertically beside the intake, like the one in the picture, with small enough holes to prevent debris coming through, large enough to allow sufficient flow, angled enough so leaves and stuff don't get stuck in the holes and create blockages. Ideas are welcome.


They have a lovely place, were so hospitable and friendly we felt as if we'd known them for years. They're heading back to their UK homeland later in the year (Chris is a firefighter - an honourable profession for sure) so their place will be up for short rents for those wanting to check out the system, have a break in a very peaceful part of the world beside a beautiful river, full with fish, turtles, otters and other characters.

More info on their blog here

More photos of their place here

Watermills research proposal

This is a short summary of what I'm attempting to look at( with the watermills of Monção.

In this concelho (county) alone, there are over 650 watermills in the old Cadastro (register) from the 1940s. Even if 70% are still there in ruins, it represents an enormous opportunity.

Portuguese version below is slightly different, for the local municipality / camera.

Research Proposal

Water mills of the Minho region –

Feasibility of their rehabilitation as generators of renewable energy.

Specific Research Questions

• Determine approximate energy potential (KW hours per year) from a selection of different mills along the Gadanha and Mouro rivers of Monção municipality.

• Research different micro-hydro turbines that would be best suited to the “low head – high flow” characteristics found in the former water mills. Consider cost, efficiency and environmental impact.

• Analyse local socio-economic factors: rural unemployment, economic migration, cultural heritage restoration (of centuries-old mill buildings) rural tourism potential and regulations relating to the use of water courses.

• Assess existing Portuguese renewable energy incentive schemes and regulations to determine the best mechanism that individuals or small communities could use to sell their “green electricity”.

Context of climate and energy challenges

This study seeks local solutions to meet unprecedented global energy and environmental challenges. Climate scientists warn of dire global warming scenarios far more severe than presented in IPCC’s latest report in 2007, if we continue to use current levels of fossil fuels for our energy needs. Meanwhile, as European oil and gas field pass peak production and enter irreversible decline, demand from industrialising nations soars. With negligible reserves of fossil fuels, Portugal is vulnerable to supply interruptions to oil, gas and coal which are foreseen to meet around 80% of its energy needs for at least another decade.

Wherever possible, local communities need to assess their capacity for sustainable energy sources – that reduce both carbon emissions and supply vulnerabilities. This research project endeavours to provide that for the municipality of Monção of the Minho region, looking specifically at local electricity generation potential.

Consultant and Institution

Magnus Wolfe Murray is an energy and environment consultant from Scotland, recently arrived in Monção with his wife and two children. This research proposal would conclude a MSc in Advanced Environmental & Energy Studies from the University of East London / Graduate School of the Environment (Wales).

Contact: magnuswm@gmail.com

----------------------------------------------------------------

PROPOSTA

Moinhos de Monção – viabilidade da sua reabilitação como geradores de energia renovável

(Setembro de 2008 a janeiro de 2009)

Questões especificas

Ø Determinar o potencial de energia aproximado (horas em kW por ano) a partir de uma selecção de moinhos ao longo dos rios Gadanha e Mouro.

Ø Avaliar a viabilidade técnica e económica em utilizar tecnologia hidráulica Alemã desenvolvida recentemente apropriada para sistemas de alta e baixa pressão – encontrada em todos os moinhos.

Ø Comparar os diferentes sistemas micro-hidráulicos com alguns critérios incluindo: custos, eficácia, impacto ecológico, estética (enquadrar-se nas orientações de restauro do património cultural).

Ø Avaliar o regime de incentivos das normas energéticas Portuguesas existentes e da energia renovável de modo a determinar de que forma a electricidade micro-hidráulica poderia ser vendida e se a aquisição de moinhos por particulares ou pela comunidade seria encorajada.

Consultor e Institutição

Magnus Wolfe Murray é consultor energético e ambiental da Escócia. Chegou recentemente a Monção e tem dois filhos. Está a restaurar uma casa antiga e um moinho em Troporiz. Esta proposta iria concluir um Mestrado em Estudos Ambientais & Energia realizado na East London University / Graduate School of the Environment (País de Gales).

Pedido à Câmara de Monção

v Aprovação para levar a cabo a pesquisa supra-mencionada.

v Apoio no que se refere a informações como:

§ População e Sociologia (características da comunidade);

§ Mapa da região e mapas de moinhos;

§ Acesso a informação de arquivo relacionada com moinhos antigos: informação técnica sobre a sua funcionalidade, socio-económica das comunidades durante o período em que os moinhos estavam a funcionar, etc.

§ Informação sobre outros estudos / pesquisas levados a cabo em moinhos reconstruídos e produção de hidro-electricidade utilizando moinhos antigos;

§ Aconselhamento sobre garantias / ajuda financeira que poderá estar disponível para o restauro do património cultural (moinhos antigos) e / ou sistemas de energia renováveis;

§ Informação sobre o Município ou projectos de regeneração socio-económica regional que poderiam ser relevantes para uma comunidade detentora de sistemas de energia.

§ Permitir a apresentação dos resultados da pesquisa no Município no final do período da pesquisa (Fevereiro 2009).

Email to European Small Hydro Association

Sick of writing so much in emails, then having to rewrite it all again into bloggage, so what the hell - i'm pasting it as it is. This more or less summarises what I'm doing right now.

As I explained today on the phone, I am undertaking a research on the potential for old water mills to be transformed as micro hydro generators. My focus area is the municipality of Monção, in the far North of Portugal, in the river Minho basin. This is a small county of around 200km2, with two main rivers feeding into the Minho, and many smaller streams feeding these two tributaries. Average annual precipitation is around 1250mm.

I have spent a few days going through a regional Kadastra of old mills, and found that there were, in the 1940s, over 650 water mills in this county alone. At present, almost none of them are functioning and not one produces electricity. Most are in a state of disrepair or ruin. But many of them are still intact, at least the open water channels (levadas) are still there, parts of some of the weirs, the mill buildings themselves and so on.

I am trying to find out what kind of turbine would fit within these old mill settings. Most have low head (1 to 3 m) and flow is limited by the size of the channels (I have estimated flow at between 110 l/s and 200 l/s).

As I'm sure you are aware, European (and national) river acts and regulations mean that concession to extract water or do any construction along rivers is... complicated, but not impossible. I have met with the regional authorities in this regard and they stated clearly that they are quite keen to support the rehabilitation of old mills, as long as it adheres to the strict ecological / environmental guidelines.

With regard to hydro electric turbines I have found it rather difficult to find a system that could work with this low head/flow. And most companies I have contacted are not interested (it's too small they all say). I am not deterred by their lack of interest. I feel certain that there must be a technology that can bring these engines of former rural enterprise back to life.

For example, I have read about the Nepalese "ghatta" wheel - which is remarkably similar to the horizontal wheels in this area. Due to lack of rural electrification in Nepal, the ghattas have continued to function, and for some years now a local intermediate technology group and various external actors have helped develop an "improved water mill" (IWM). This now provides a little power, as well as the grinding or milling services they also need. It is, by all accounts, a "multi functional" system. Could these IWMs could be tranferred, or adapted, to the local setting here?

Perhaps the nascent hydrodynamic screw made by Ritz-Atro could work in some of the mills - given it's ability to allow migratory fish to pass through it unharmed. This is a major issue in some smaller rivers here.

And there are low head Francis systems I have read about, but I am worried that this would require major civil works around the site for new pipe channels, etc. which could affect the aesthetics of the area, etc. Also, they may be too expensive.

I have studied the Portuguese renewable energy tariff, and in terms of hydro it could be attractive for small systems (under 4kw).

So these are the issues. Would you be able to help?

As I mentioned to Lauha Fried today, I believe that there is enormous potential for EU / regional funding for a more profound study and pilot projects in this area. Indeed, it is the wider area - in 10 days I am meeting a group from Vigo university (Spain, Galicia) to view a mill project they have. And they too have asked about power generation potential). (Galicia is also full of these old mills).
I have met with a professor from Portugal's largest civil engineering faculty, FEUP (http://www.fe.up.pt/si_uk/unidades_geral.visualizar?p_unidade=47) and he has indicated that his department of hydraulics would be keen to get involved.
I can also be certain that local municipalities and related NGOs would be interested.

Thus we have all the makings of an interesting funding proposal for a serious piece of study to breath life back into the moribund mills of this region.

It would be great if ESHA would be interested to participate.

mwm

Echoes of watermills

Time to head south: Viana do Castelo, quite a nice Port town nestled between the sea and the mouth of the river Lima. I wanted to dig through an old register of watermills in Monção county, where we live. For some reason it’s held there, and bizarrely, nobody in Monção’s council has any idea how many watermills lie within their reach, how many are functional nor what potential exists for their rehabilitation

Actually, this is what I am supposed to be doing my thesis on – to complete my masters in something to do with environment and energy studies (a completion that I could have submitted 1 year ago, but have dragged out, changed twice, dithered plenty until finally resolving to focus on something related to our new home in the river valleys of Northern Portugal.

We have a little mill on our property too, so there’s some self-interest going on there. But what I really want to know is can these old mills feasibly be adapted into mini hydroelectric generators ? And what other enticing service could they deliver if the river’s energy could be borrowed again: a potters wheel comes to mind, a sharpening stone for your axe, a sanding block, a press for local olives?

They were originally built – in serious numbers – to grind corn and grain, to cut wood or to thrash some kind of plant into linen (I heard about this one only recently). In other words, a shortcut for really boring manual labour.

Using the energy embodied in falling water has been used for centuries, millennia in fact. The earliest record of people doing clever things with water is from Sumerian times (a mega early civilisation between the 6th and 4th millennium BC). It is said that they were the first people to practice year round agriculture (from around 5300 BC – really quite a long time ago). Indeed it was this ability to grow serious amounts of food that meant they could stay in one place, build towns and ‘cities’ and develop some kind of complex society – divisions of labour, a system of organisation, record keeping, writing, laws and all the rest. Sounds amazing, wish I could visit.

Although there isn’t actually any proof they ground corn, it is thought they used a water mill of some kind to raise water, probably for irrigation. A few thousand years later the Greeks must have discovered a discarded Sumerian design pad and they took it to the next level: the water mill. Enthused by this new invention one of their sponsored poets of the time, known as the Antipater of Thessalonica dispatched some inspired counsel:

"Hold back your hand from the mill, you grinding girls; even if the cockcrow heralds the dawn, sleep on. For Demeter has imposed the labours of your hands on the nymphs, who leaping down upon the topmost part of the wheel, rotate its axle; with encircling cogs, it turns the hollow weight of the Nisyrian millstones. If we learn to feast toil-free on the fruits of the earth, we taste again the golden age.”

This guy really was inspired, or maybe already on a higher plane. Sleep on you grinding girls. Use your minds and labour less, lie about and think, philosophise, play. “The Golden Age”. If this is when you are no longer forced to break your back working the land, while machines magic it all for you, then our modern age is golden indeed.

I thought about this and realise that there are fundamental differences in how far we have taken our golden age thing. The Antipater observed the virtually harmless energy capture of falling water – tapping into the world’s hydrological cycle.

Today, in contrast, we extract prehistoric solar energy in the form of oil and gas, from deep underground, and burn it to turn everything, to drive our computers and move our carriages even to make the food we eat – forget about grindstones.

Is our age more golden? This depends on your definition of golden. It has surely enabled us to industrialise our planet, for our population to soar, famines and plagues to be averted, armies to build fiercer weapons that ever before and to build machines that think. But unlike the benign impact of a water mill – burning all that ancient sunlight embodied in fossil fuels is creating an environmental disaster which could extinguish almost all life on earth. Read Mark Lynas’s Six Degrees if you feel inclined to know how. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/apr/23/scienceandnature.climatechange
Hardly benign, far from golden.

Here in the Northern Green of Portugal lies a land of rivers and vineyards, dotted with watermills at every river bend. Today, however, you will find no spinning wheel or grinding cogs but plenty of brambles and weeds. The mills lie in ruins. Even getting to them is hard work, for which you need a machete and dragon skin gloves.

How could this be? what a waste I declared to anyone that would listen. Surely they could be of some use these days. I wanted to know how many still exist around this area. After a fair bit of digging and confused conversations in my cringeworthy Portuguese I found the answer – in the regional office of environment and water resources an hour or so away. There I found an old office, staffed mainly by people from another era, sitting around desks and cupboards from the 30s, surprisingly free of the usual computerised networks and blinking screens. I somehow explained my venture and then a lady appeared with a pile of old folders covered in dust – the cadastra – an archive of old records of where the mills exist in Monção, their location names of the owners, and even how many grindstones are registered in each mill. Amazing – and nobody’s looked at them for years, they said. “we thought about creating a digital record” they said “but it never happened”.

No worries. They are perfect like this; museum pieces. Each record comes in two parts: one written by hand – in careful and sometimes beautiful text. The other a typed copy. They date from 1941 to 1945, when somehow Portugal seemed to have avoided the miserable distractions of world wars.

So yesterday was my appointed time to record them. I hadn’t planned for the snowy conditions and of course it was another un-heated building. But carpeted and made of thick stone so not too bad. The power was out in the little study cell I was shown to, but I had enough battery power to keep me going for a while. So I was left alone with these pages of antiquity. Soon enough I discovered that each page had seemingly shrivelled over time to incredible thinness, as if a mere touch would turn them to dust. This also meant that each folder held hundreds upon hundreds of entries. This was going to be a long haul. Hour after hour I turned page after page, finding a rhythm typing in the records, as you can walking an endless hill or chopping logs. Each page a new entry I could copy down. I felt like a professor from an Indiana Jones film, everything around me seemed draped in sepia. Even the names of mill-owners that I dutifully recorded, occasionally one person owned two or three places – the rich guys! Or the Golçalves family, who owned half the mills in a village.

I became entranced by these names. Like a school roll call, Only more exotic, a ships’ crew from a Latin American adventure: Redolfo Alves, Germano José de Almeida, Dr Antonio de Cunha Meneses, Baltazar Rodrigues Chaves. Each page heralded a new character, a dashing hero or lady shrouded in mystery.

Like everywhere, most names seem to have been chosen from a fairly limited, often biblical hat. José, Manuel and António were regulars. Sitting opposite them on the girls’ bench one could find plenty Maria, Rita and Rosas.

But now and again my trance would be enlightened by someone special. Joana Rita Bravo Pereira do Lago de Eça grabbed my attention: The force is strong with this one, I mused. Lago de eça… eço is echo. Lago is lake. So eça could be the feminine echo. Joana’s echo? Joana of the echoing lake … What a name! (was she the child of a complex love triangle involving trapeze artists and musketeers? or did her ancestors claim another name from each foe they vanquished?). What became of her? Where are her descendents now? It was as if by opening the dusty volumes a bit of her echoed past me into another time.

They became my compadres, they occupied my addled mind, projecting images of life in the early 20th century . Gaspar de Sousa I imagine hunchbacked under his sacks of corn, struggling against his rural toils; Baltazar Gonçalves the boistrous mayor; Clementine e Antonio Domingues orphaned siblings, survivors from needless killings perpetrated by departing Napoleonic troops; Carmelinda de Jesus, a warm and honeyed lovely living in her own spirit world.

By closing time I had only got through half the register – around 400 mills. I still can’t believe how many. This is smallish district we’re talking about, less than 20,000 people, and only two main rivers. Yet it seems people built mills on every tiny stream – how resourceful! How inspired.

As I drove home in the frozen twilight I look forward to the next stage of my enquiry: visiting some of these mills, or rather their owners, searching in the living faces for stories of their ancestors, those that passed by my war-time register. And to look upon the ruins of their mills that once brought them a little income, or perhaps a moment of wonder as they imagined echoes of ancient water-nymphs, full of mischief, still falling among the spinning wheels, gracing them with their boundless energy.