Ta’ Niklaw Windmill - Gozo
Full history & construction details — Tal-Qasam (Ta’ Bejn Kerċem / Ta’ Niklaw) Windmill, Gozo
📍 Location
The coordinates of Tal-Qasam Windmill are:
- 36.051694, 14.223972
Summary timeline
Originally built: 1724, under the Manoel de Vilhena foundations (the Manoel Foundation / Fondazione Vilhena funded a number of rural windmills in Gozo and Malta).
Rebuilt / major repair: recorded as rebuilt in 1784 (a pattern familiar where early-18th-century mills—sometimes of poor original workmanship—were reconstructed later in the century).
Use & fate: used as a working grain mill (with an attached bakery and miller’s lodging). Later the sails were removed and the structure was converted to a farmhouse / dwelling in later years (common fate for many rural mills once steam and motor milling spread).
Historical context & role
The mill belongs to the wave of early-18th-century rural windmills established under Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena’s period of public works (many mills built or sponsored by the Manoel Foundation date to the 1720s–1730s). These mills served as local grain-grinding centres supplying bread and staple foodstuffs to the surrounding villages. The fact Tal-Qasam required rebuilding later (1784) fits the wider pattern of early mills needing substantial repairs or replacement.
Architecture & construction details
Tower mill type — a cylindrical (round) central tower set on or surrounded by a low rectangular base of service rooms (storage, bakery rooms, miller’s living quarters). This “tower + base” plan is the standard Maltese/Gozo form for windmills of the 18th century.
Built in local Maltese/Gozo limestone with rubble/ashlar masonry and lime mortar — the typical construction approach for vernacular island architecture and windmills of the period.
Historically fitted with a wooden windshaft and several wooden sail-arms (sweeps) carrying sailcloth or lattice — inside, a brake wheel driving a vertical shaft and a runner millstone (upper) over a bedstone (lower), with associated wooden gearing, sack-hoists and grain-chutes. Specific surviving internal fittings for Tal-Qasam are not published in the open sources; many mills lost their machinery after falling out of commercial use.
Published notes mention an attached bakery and living accommodation for the miller — typical for Manoel Foundation mills which often included provisions for milling and baking for local needs.
Measured dimensions & current condition
I did not find published measured plans or precise survey dimensions for Tal-Qasam in open online sources.
Currently in use as a private residence, appears to be in very good condition the Windmill can only be viewed from the roads that pass by the residence
