Estonian mills. Hellenurme Water Mill

Number by catalogue:  Michel: 592   Yvert: 550  

Perforation type: 14x13 ¾

Subject:

5,5 kroon or 35 cents. The Hellenurme Water Mill on the Elva River*

Additional:

*The Hellenurme Water Mill on the Elva River in Estonia’s Valga County was built in 1880, forming part of the Hellenurme manor then owned by Academician Alexander Theodor von Middendorff’s family. The mill (including the sawmill in the same complex) was nationalised under the Estonian Land Reform Act in 1919. In 1932 Karl Rudolf Veski bought the mill from the Republic of Estonia and upgraded it so it could grind bolted flour instead of earlier meal. On 18 October 1940 the mill was once again nationalised, this time by the Soviets. Today a grand-grand-daughter of Karl Rudolf Veski is keeper of the mill.

The mill is a sturdy T-shaped building of split granite boulders, bricks and timber two to three stories high, rising to four and a half floors in the mill part. Its earlier shingle roof has now been restored. The mill complex is an architectural monument, a working museum, where visitors can see the mill in function from the opening of the sluice gate to the cleaning of the grain and grinding it into flour, semolina and groats. A a small hydroelectric power plant has been restored in the complex and there is a local history museum with various exhibits from different periods in a wing.

 

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FDC of this issue