A photo tour of world windmills


To me, the classic windmill image is that of an English windmill. Of these, the post mill is the earliest type.

Nutley Nutley Pitstone Pitstone

Later designs included the smock mill (made of wood),

ChaileyChailey

and the tower mill (made of brick or stone).

Shirley Shirley Thaxted Thaxted

There are a few unconventional English designs as well...

Chesterton Chesterton Wimbledon Wimbledon


To most Americans, a windmill probably means a metal windpump. However originally there were windmills much like the English variety, and a reconstruction of an early American post mill is on show at Colonial Williamsburg.

Colonial Williamsburg Colonial Williamsburg

Later America also moved to smock and tower mill types. There is a distinctive Cape Cod smock mill style.

Brewster Brewster Orleans Orleans

In the Caribbean we find mills built to crush sugar cane.

Morgan Lewis Morgan Lewis, Barbados


There is of course a distinctive Mediterranean windmill style as well

Qala, MaltaQala, Malta Xaghra, MaltaXaghra,Malta

Algarve, Portugal Algarve, Portugal

Bodrum, Turkey Bodrum, Turkey Bodrum, Turkey Bodrum, Turkey

Guatiza, Lanzarote Guatiza, Lanzarote

Consuegra, Spain.


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Last updated 27/07/2020 Text and images © Mark Berry, 1997-2020 -