Here is a summary of what is known — and what remains uncertain — about the Gudja Windmill (Gudja, Malta), which was demolished.
✅ What sources say about the Gudja Windmill
The standard list of Maltese windmills notes a “Gudja — Gudja Windmill” listed as a tower mill, built under the patronage of the Nicolas Cottoner (or his foundation), and records its fate as “Demolished 1930”.
The “Windmills of Malta” database entry for Gudja confirms that the mill was “pulled down in 1930.”
According to local history overviews, the windmill was one among several built by the Cottoner administration (which built mills in a number of villages including Gudja) between the mid‑17th and late‑17th century.
Hence — according to secondary compiled sources — the Gudja windmill existed (as a tower mill), and was demolished in 1930.
🏗️ What is not known / what is uncertain
Construction date & original documents: I found no publicly accessible archival source that gives a concrete contract date, notarial deed, or contemporary record of the Gudja mill’s building. The “built by Cottoner” attribution comes from more modern compilations of windmill distributions — typical for many Maltese mills whose original archival records are lost or unpublished.
Exact location / footprint: No accessible map or cadastral sheet (available in my search) that clearly shows the mill tower in Gudja remains published online with coordinates or a marked footprint. I found no georeferenced historic‑map overlay indicating its precise former site.
Archaeological / physical remains: There is no public record or heritage listing (that I saw) indicating that any remains — such as the base, foundations, or rubble — survive in Gudja today. The available local-history / geography sources for Gudja make no mention of “mill ruin” or preserved traces.
Contemporaneous imagery or surveys: I found no historic photograph, drawing or survey plan of the Gudja windmill in public databases that clearly matches a known location in present‑day Gudja.
🔎 What we can reasonably infer (but cautiously)
Based on what we know about Maltese tower‑mills generally, and how other similar mills were built around 1660–1700 under the Cottoner foundation or their successors, we can infer:
The Gudja mill was probably a cylindrical / tapering limestone tower, with one or two floors surrounding a central milling tower shaft — the typical Maltese “tower mill” design of the period.
Its function would have been as a grain mill, serving local farmers and the village of Gudja (and possibly nearby hamlets), grinding wheat / barley into flour — like other rural mills across the islands.
It likely became obsolete earlier in the 20th century (as steam/industrial milling and importation of flour rendered many windmills economically unviable) — which may explain why it was ultimately demolished in 1930.