Labour and technology migrations in the Iberian Peninsula: the case of the Spanish Millano Family's Woollen Mills in Portugal (late 19th-Early 20th century)

This article studies three woollen mills (Torre de Moncorvo, Trás-os-Montes and Vila Nova de Gaia/Porto) built in the north of Portugal from the second half of the 19th to the early 20th centuries, by a family of Spanish migrants, the Millanos. The circumstances of this family’s migration, its impact on the local communities and even the location and description of their mills were barely known at the beginning of this work. Thus, this article sheds new light both on the location of Millanos’ mills in Portugal and on their morphological and technological configurations. Various techniques were combined, including GIS technology, aerial photography analysis, documentary research and archaeological field survey to explore new paths of research in industrial archaeology that let us offer a more global perspective of the mills and their social and historical context.