Windmill - Vertical Windmills

Vertical Windmills

Due to a lack of evidence, there is a debate among historians as to whether or not Middle Eastern horizontal windmills triggered the original development of European windmills. In northwestern Europe, the horizontal-axis or vertical windmill (so called due to the plane of the movement of its sails) is believed to date from the last quarter of the 12th century in the triangle of northern France, eastern England and Flanders. The earliest certain reference to a windmill in Europe (assumed to have been of the vertical type) dates from 1185, in Weedley, Yorkshire, although a number of earlier but less certainly dated twelfth century European sources referring to windmills have also been found. These earliest mills were used to grind cereals.