Tower Mill - Interesting Facts

Interesting Facts

The world's tallest tower mills can be found in Schiedam, Netherlands with the highest mill being De Nolet (built in 2006 as a "generator mill" producing electricity and named after the local Nolet distilling family the mill belongs to, 140 ft / 42.5 metres to cap) and De Noord (The North, corn mill of 1803), 109 ft / 33.5 metres to cap) both in working order.

England's tallest tower mill is the nine-storeyed Moulton Windmill in Moulton, Lincolnshire, with a cap height of 97.5 ft / 30 metres. Since 2005 the mill has a new white rotatable cap with windshaft and fantail in place but without her four patent sails. The stage was erected during April / May 2008.

In the Netherlands windmills named torenmolens (tower mills) have a compact-built, cylindric or only slightly conical tower. In the southern Netherlands four mills of that type (Dutch definition) survived, the oldest one built in 1441. The cap of three of those mills is turned by a luffing gear built in the cap. Older types of the tower mill could be found on castles, fortresses or city walls with a fixed cap since the 14th century, and are still be found around the Mediterranean Sea. They were built with the sails facing the prevailing wind direction.

Tower mills were very expensive to build with estimates suggesting almost twice that of post mills, which is in part why they weren't very prevalent until centuries after invention. Sometimes these mills were even built on the sides of castles and towers in fortified towns to make them resistant to attacks. Some tower mills were still in operation well into the 20th century in the southern parts of the United Kingdom.