The Water Mill of El Batán or Pambaso

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Industrial architecture · Year: S. XVI

Mills were fundamental devices for supplying flour and gofio to the inhabitants of the city of Las Palmas from the very beginning. Built mainly from wood and little iron, those existing in the city at the beginning of the 16th century were generally located in the basin of the Guiniguada ravine, as the water flowing there caused the movement of these valuable machines.

 The existence of bread mills in this area is known; indeed, 16th-century writings include phrases such as: “.. on the road that goes to the mills ”, which suggests that several were well located on the edge of the city ravine. One of them is the El Batán mill, also known as Pambaso, which even today, five hundred years later, barely retains part of its structure.

These types of mills operated by means of wooden buckets that collected water from the ravine’s stream or from channels made for this purpose. Once the water was deposited in the bocín, the waterwheel or wheel began to turn, causing the movement of the stones that crushed the grain previously deposited in the hopper or funnel. From there, the milled cereal fell into esparto baskets or large esparto fibre baskets, where it was stored for distribution.

The bread mills of Las Palmas from that early period were assets that were rented or leased. We know of several tenants (Diego Hernández de Coimbra or Bartolomé Fontana, to name a few) who were willing to pay forty doubloons and four hens per year, including the trellis, with the owner reserving twelve and a half fanegas of milled wheat per week for themselves. All in all, the grain milling business must have been prosperous in times of good harvests, given the social demand for this basic food at that time.

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