An industrial heritage site preserved for posterity. There’s been a saw and flour mill on these grounds for centuries. Energy has been drawn from Melltorps mill stream for four hundred years. The river and waterfall are still very important. The only difference is that heavy industry has been replaced by tourism.
Melltorp Saw is a living history museum and as such is a member of ArbetSam, the Swedish National Association of Living History Museums. The mechanical Frame Saw is unique of its kind and one of very few in West Sweden.
Living history museums have to meet strict guidelines. We are expected to have good knowledge of how to run a museum as well as being able to master technical processes.
A primitive grain mill powered by a horizontal waterwheel existed in Melltorps Qvarnström from the beginning of the 1600s. Melltorp and Högens Mills (now Melltorps Mill) was built in the 1850s by farmers in the area, who owned it jointly. At the same time a large vertical waterwheel was installed, which powered the sawmill as well. In 1921 the wheel was replaced by turbines. The flour and accompanying saw mill were owned by the farmers up to 1951.
Algot Johansson came to Melltorp in 1918 as the Master Sawyer and Miller. His father, the miller Alfred Bengtsson, had worked at Lockö Mill since 1880.
The fourth generation Saw Master, Hans Johansson, runs the business today with his wife Catharina.
