A ‘chocolate box’ type image of dairy cows, farmhands, and a Dutch Windmill somewhere in Holland.
A 1930s greetings card of an idyllic Dutch smock windmill. Features cows, farmworkers, a horse, and mill. Location unknown but it looks very Dutch, was published in the Netherlands, and was dedicated to someone called Jan using the Dutch language! More than 1,200 windmills survive in the Netherlands. Many were built to pump water rather than mill cereals.
Here we have a fascinating photograph taken in June 1912. It features a horse-drawn plough outside an early post mill. The windmill was located in Hamersleben in the Quedlinburg area, north of the Harz mountains, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The windmill is believed to have burnt down towards the end of the Second World War.
A scan of a 1912 private photograph of a windmill in the Quedlinburg area of Germany.
Saltfleet Tower Mill on Lincolnshire, England, c.1955.
Saltfleet windmill is believed to date back to 1770 and is therefore one of the oldest surviving mills in England. It was last used commercially in the late 1940s and is sadly currently in a state of disrepair.
An early 1930s picture postcard featuring Saltfleet Windmill in Lincolnshire.
The tower mill in Saltfleet, near East Lindsey, Lincolnshire, England.
A photograph of the Mill in Pilling, Lancashire, c.1909.
The mill in Pilling was built in 1808 to replace an earlier post windmill, which stood near the site of the present mill. It was converted to steam power in 1886 and went out of use just after the First World War. In the late 1960s it was converted into a residence and recently had a new cap fitted in the style of the original. Pilling is a village, near Garstang, Lancashire, in the north of England.
An early 1900s photograph of the windmill in Coningsby, Lincs.
Three archive images of the mill in Coningsby in the county of Lincolnshire in England.
An old image of the mill in Coningsby, Lincs, as it appeared in 1910.
The windmill on Silver Street in Coningsby, Lincolnshire, c.1911.
Coningsby Tower Mill was built in 1826 and milled for the last time around 1905. Unfortunately it was demolished in 1970.
Quainton Windmill
An old photographic image of the mill and the remains of an old cross in Quainton in Buckinghamshire, c.1914.
This mill is located in Quainton, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. It is a 20 metre (70 ft) six-storey brick tower mill, first used in 1832. It went out of use around 1890 and in 1914 the steam engine and boiler, which had driven the millstones for the later part of its working life, were sold for scrap. However, the mill has undergone ongoing restoration since the mid 1970s and now has all the internal workings to enable it to grind wheat into flour. The mill is privately owned but open every Sunday between 10am and 1pm from March through to the beginning of October.
The mill with children on the village green in Quainton, Bucks. This was taken in 1905.
A photograph of the windmill prior to restoration around 1970. Notice that the cap, fantail, and sails are missing.
A scan of an original photograph of a Polish Windmill taken by a German soldier during the invasion of Poland in late 1939. Exact location unknown.
An old photographic postcard of children dressed in Dutch costumes in and around a mini windmill in England.
A lovely image of children playing in a model windmill in a garden somewhere in England. Note the Dutch-style costumes. Any comments regarding the location of this play windmill much appreciated!
A German soldier posing near an unidentified windmill near Lublin, Poland, in 1940.
Here is a short film made by a visitor to Stembridge Tower Mill in High Ham, Somerset. Interesting views of the interior and the sounds of the Jackdaws nesting under the thatched cap. Thanks Lesley! 