Here’s a concise, sourced dossier on the Għasri (Wilga Street) windmill — the mid-19th-century mill near the parish church that was later destroyed.
Quick summary
Location: Wilga (Wilga/Wilga Street) — close to the Parish Church, Għasri, Gozo.
Built: 1859 (listed in specialist windmill inventories).
Builder / attribution: secondary sources attribute some Għasri mills of this era to Camilleri family members (Luigi Camilleri is named in some lists) — attribution appears in enthusiast/historical compilations rather than an online notarial deed.
Type / construction: unusually recorded as a completely wooden tower in at least one specialist compilation — an atypical design for Gozo (the majority of island windmills are stone tower mills).
History & context
The mill was erected during the mid-19th century wave of privately built windmills in Gozo (after the monopoly on milling relaxed). The 1859 date places it in this private-enterprise phase of local milling.
Its siting on Wilga Street near the parish church put it in the small, wind-exposed valley area around Għasri — an appropriate position for catching the island’s prevailing breezes while serving the village’s agricultural needs.
The mill is recorded in both specialist inventories (Windmills of Malta database) and local history/enthusiast compilations (Vassallo History), which together supply the build year, address and demise.
Construction details
Material / form: one secondary source explicitly describes the mill as a “completely wooden tower.” That is notable because most Gozitan windmills are stone towers with a timber cap. If the Wilga Street mill truly was wooden, it was an uncommon — and therefore fragile — type for the islands.
Likely internal layout: even wooden-tower mills used the same basic milling mechanics: a windshaft and brake wheel driving vertical gearing and paired millstones (runner + bedstone), with storage/workrooms at the base. Floors would be arranged so grain could be gravity-fed down to the stones. No surviving blueprint or machinery inventory for this specific mill is published online; the internal description above is the standard layout for island windmills.
Sails & cap: the mill would have had stocks/sails mounted to a windshaft and a cap/hood to aim into the wind. The wooden construction, if accurate, makes the cap and stocks particularly vulnerable to storm damage.
Destruction (c. 1939)
Multiple secondary sources assert the mill was destroyed by a whirlwind (storm) around 1939. The wording “destroyed by a whirlwind” is repeated in windmill compilations, implying a severe wind event demolished the structure rather than gradual decay or demolition.
I did not find a digitised contemporary newspaper clipping (1939) online that gives a day/date and eyewitness report — such a clipping may exist in local newspaper archives or the National Archives/Gozo Album.
Evidence & surviving material
The mill is recorded in specialist inventories (Windmills of Malta) and local history compilations (Vassallo History). Those are the primary publicly-available references for the build year and destruction.
The Gozo Album / National Archives maintains a rich photographic and documentary catalogue for Għasri; some nearby mills (other Għasri mills) are photographed there. I did not find an immediately accessible photograph online expressly labelled “Wilga Street windmill 1859” in the search results — there may be images in the Gozo Album or National Archives that require targeted searching of their Għasri collections.
Caveats / uncertainties
Wooden tower claim: reported by enthusiast sites — unusual for the islands — needs confirmation from an archival photograph or a primary record (builder’s description / notarial deed).
Exact owner / builder: Luigi Camilleri is named in one compilation for a Għasri mill; there’s no online notarial deed I could find that confirms the original contract owner for this Wilga Street mill.
Contemporary newspaper account of 1939 event: not found in the public indexes I checked; deeper archival newspaper research (Malta/Gozo press 1939) is likely to yield a report if one exists.