La Corroirie du Liget is a small fortified farmhouse signed off the D760 between Beaulieu-les-Loches and Montressor. There is a €3 honesty box in the gatehouse and a detailed information booklet in French.
It is surrounded by a wall with a moat and a small bridge to the massive 13/15thC fortified gateway tower. The old farmhouse has been restored and now does bed and breakfast. There is a row of barns on the other side of the gateway. At the corner of the walls is a small pigeon loft. The church is in the centre of the site and is massive. It is a very plain 11thC building with a simple round doorway and buttresses. An upper level with widows has been added later.
Inside the nave is bare with the remains of a step into chancel. Small pillars on the side walls support the roof aches of the vaulted stone ceiling of the nave and chancel apse. In the central arch of the chancel wall is an attempt at a mural of the crucifixion (1935). The only light is from two large windows in the south wall of the nave and the smaller windows in the chancel.
Off the north side of the church is a huge double cellar with a massive round central pillar supporting the roof. This was used to store grain and also as a workshop for making hemp ropes or for weaving the fibres.
This leads into the remains of two mills, again with a massive supporting central pillar. Steps lead down into the wheel pit and there are the remains of the leat which fed in water. There are the remains of millstones. One mill was used for grinding grain; the other for tanning of skins, or crushing the fibres of retted hemp.
This is a delightful spot and well worth visiting. We were the only visitors and the only sound was bird song.
