Energy · 1185

Post mill

European horizontal-axis windmills pivot on a post to face the wind.

The earliest record of a European windmill is a post mill at Weedley, Yorkshire in 1185. Turning the whole body into the wind let horizontal-axis sails work anywhere, and Dutch successors later drained whole provinces.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Windmill 700
Watermill 300 BCE

What it led to 1

Wind electricity 1887

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Energy sources in England & Wales since 1800 Latest: 99.9 % of primary energy (2008) Source: Our World in Data

Output of key industries in England, 1270-1870 Latest: Coal: 3.77k index (1700=100) (1870) Source: Our World in Data

Wind electricity generation Latest: 2.71k TWh (2025) Source: Our World in Data