No 1, Mill Street, home of the Pelican Cafe, has been revealed as Moulin de Milleu – the mill in the middle – a water mill, which was thought to be long-demolished.
Owner Daniel Klaassen 'fell in love' with what he thought was a listed Georgian town house after seeing a for sale sign in the window during the pandemic.
‘I had no idea it had been a mill,’ he said.
‘We knew the building had real history, but it has been a joy to uncover the building’s secrets.’
The building revealed its true origins when Mr Klaassen removed some tanking from the rear wall of the ground floor, and found a water channel that he traced back to a ledge carved out of the cliff which the house backed onto.
The ledge would have been where the blade of the waterwheel passed.
Further research showed there had once been a mill in Mansell Street and another by the Town Church, making the site the missing mill in the middle.
Now knowing the building’s name, they uncovered maps that showed the house had previously been in the form of a U shape with the water wheel in the middle.
The mill’s demise is documented in the mid-17th century after the water was diverted from the Upper Mill in Mansell Street.
‘Why this was done is unclear, maybe a neighbour dispute as a competitor even then? We shall never know.’
Mr Klaassen wanted to thank all those who had helped unearth the building’s hidden history, including Gregory Stevens-Cox, Phil de Jersey, John McCormac and David Savident.
‘Thanks to them, we have connected No1 Mill Street with the mill in the middle,’ he said.
‘Their help and support in solving this mystery has enriched Guernsey’s history.’
But the building also had later secrets to reveal and hidden in the house Mr Klaassen found a wealth of other material, including a ceremonial sword sheath, a 1938 radio hidden behind a partition wall, accounts from when the building was a tobacco shop in the 1930s and a wartime blue book containing the names of address of everyone who lived in the island, including German forces.
‘Everything is archived,’ said Mr Klaassen.
‘We hope to display some of the physical items, like the radio, in the building, with the documents going to the island archive as they belong to Guernsey.’
The building is still being restored but Mr Klaassen is sure it will have a bright future.
‘We want a functioning ground floor takeaway cafe and a self-sustaining permanent retail presence on the other floors,’ he said.
‘But we are sure the building still has one or two secrets to reveal before then.’
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