Windmills and Watermills on postage stamps

Mills, and particularly windmills, are an especially popular thematic choice for stamp collectors. Many countries have issued illustrations of their own country's mills, with other mills cropping up on artwork reproduced on stamps, and especially on stamps commemorating Don Quixote!

British Issues

Despite the ample possibilities for subject matter, there has never been a mainland British stamp issued featuring a British windmill. The 1973 Christmas issue, celebrating Good King Wenceslas (Duke of Bohemia) did however show a crude windmill sketch in the background.

Water power has done only marginally better, with the sole representative being the water powered cotton mills at New Lanark, Strathclyde, which feature on the July 1989 Industrial Archaeology series:

The Ironbridge, Shropshire (19p)
Tin mine, St Agnes, Cornwall (27p)
Cotton Mills, New Lanark, Strathclyde (32p)
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Clwyd (35p)

The same 4 subjects from that issue were also included on a combined sheet issued the same month, but for the benefit of Stamp World '90. The regular stamps are portrait format, but the stamps of the combined sheet are landscape format, so include slightly different views from Ronald Maddox's original artwork. This mini-sheet was the cover illustration for both the 41st edition of Stanley Gibbons "Collect British Stamps", and also for the July 1989 "British Philatelic Bulletin".

Industrial Archaeology combined sheet 1989.

British stamps featuring closely related subjects include:

1967 British Paintings series 1s6d stamp is the L S Lowry painting "Children coming out of school" - one of his familar mill town images
1968 British Paintings series 1s9d stamp is Constable's "The Hay Wain" - just along from his other popular subject of Flatford Mill
1976 Social Reformers series 10p stamp commemorating Robert Owen features machinery - line drives from the textile mills
1986 Industry Year series 34p stamp represents agriculture with a field of corn and a loaf of bread, without showing the mill that helps turn one into the other!
1989 Food and Farming Year series 35p stamp represents cereal products with a sheaf of corn, and a finished loaf, amongst other items

Other British Philatelic Items

In 1970 a bursary of £200 was offered for a design for a set of stamps, also entitled Industrial Archaeology. The winner out of 76 entries was a design featuring

Cornish engine house near Camborne (3p)
water tower near Liverpool (5p)
pithead gear, Tirpentwys colliery (7.5p)
Billingford tower mill, Norfolk (9p)

Although never issued as postage stamps, this design was actually reproduced in stamp like form as an insert with the 1972 publication of the Penrose Annual for Printers.

1972 Penrose Annual printing of 1970 design

Stamp booklets

In 1990-91 the Royal Mail issued a series of £1 stamp books designed by J Sancha, which featured mills on the booklet covers. The series featured:

Wicken Fen windpump, Cambridgeshire
Click Mill, Dounby, Orkney
Jack and Jill windmills, Clayton, Sussex
Howell mill, Llanddeusant, Anglesea

Other stamps from the British Isles

Other postage authorities on the outlying islands of the British Isles have issued stamps featuring both windmills and water powered devices.

Guernsey 1979 Series of stamps showing Guernsey coins - where 2 stamps show the 1971 and 1977 2p coins, which in turn show a picture of Sark windmill [stamps] [stamps]
Guernsey 1982 Vale Mill c1900. Guernsey Scenes - 2p To Pay [scan]
Jersey 1984 Australian tower mill - painted by Jersey artist John Alexander Gilfilan (1793-1864) - 26p stamp [scan]
Jersey 1989 French windmill on stamp to commemorate the French Revolution - 35p stamp [scan]
Isle of Man 1983 Waterwheel at Laxey, Isle of Man - 20.5p stamp
Isle of Man 1992 Panoramic Showing the Pilgrim Fathers of 1620 with a windmill on the skyline - 18p stamp [scan]
Isle of Pabay (unofficial) 1999 [Carriage label]Renewable energy - showing wind turbine on £2 stamp [scan]

Internet Resources

Individual issues

Country	Year	Subject	Links
Aland	2001	3 stamps of windmills	[info] [info]
Belarus	2000	watermill	[info]
Brazil	1977	toy windmill	[info]
Czech Republic	2001	Kuzelov windmill	[info] [info] [info]
Czech Republic	2001	Strehom watermill	[info]
Denmark	1997	post mill - Frielandsmuseet	[scan]
France	1936	Le Moulin de Alphonse Daudet	[scan]
Germany	1981	4 windmills stamps	[info]
Germany	1997	Welfare series - 2 of watermills, 3 of windmills	[info]
Lithuania	1999	2 windmill stamps - Melniai and Pumpenai	[info] [glossy] [non-glossy] [info]
Luxembourg	2001	comic strip wind turbines	[info]
Marshall islands	2001	windpump	[info]
Mongolia	2000	train passing Netherlands windmills	[info] [scan]
Netherlands	1962	Polder mill	[scan]
Netherlands	1963	5 stamps of windmills	[info]
Netherlands	1994	mill with letters on sails	[scan]
Slovenia	1993	Wind Pump, Salt Pans of Secovlje	[info]
Slovenia	1993	Boat mill on the Mura	[info]
Slovenia	1997	The wind-rattle of Prlekija	[info]
Slovenia	1999	Windmill on Stara Gora	[info]
Switzerland	2001	4 stamps of watermills	[info]
USA	1980	5 windmill stamps - Virginia; Rhode Island; Illinois; Cape Cod; Texas	[info] [Texas] [Texas] [booklet] [Cape Cod] [high res scan]
United Nations Postal Administration	2001	mountain-top wind turbines	[info]

Collections

Molinos de Viento en la Filatelia from La Biblioteca del Tio Kinke, includes a chronological list of windmill issues, and an extensive set of example stamps

Misc

TIMS page of Philately, Mill-books and Art links
Windmills in philately, numismatics, and heraldry
The Windmill Study Unit
Mills on Stamps in the July 2001 TIMS Journal
Mills on Stamps - was a paper given at the 18th Mills Research conference

Last updated 03/03/2017

Guernsey	1979	Series of stamps showing Guernsey coins - where 2 stamps show the 1971 and 1977 2p coins, which in turn show a picture of Sark windmill	[stamps] [stamps]
Guernsey	1982	Vale Mill c1900. Guernsey Scenes - 2p To Pay	[scan]
Jersey	1984	Australian tower mill - painted by Jersey artist John Alexander Gilfilan (1793-1864) - 26p stamp	[scan]
Jersey	1989	French windmill on stamp to commemorate the French Revolution - 35p stamp	[scan]
Isle of Man	1983	Waterwheel at Laxey, Isle of Man - 20.5p stamp
Isle of Man	1992	Panoramic Showing the Pilgrim Fathers of 1620 with a windmill on the skyline - 18p stamp	[scan]
Isle of Pabay (unofficial)	1999	[Carriage label]Renewable energy - showing wind turbine on £2 stamp	[scan]