Retrospective puts wind back into sails of historic landmarks

A NEW exhibition turns the clock back 120 years to when there were more than 110 working windmills in the East Riding.

The display at Skidby Windmill – Yorkshire’s last working windmill – shows the development and subsequent decline of the region’s windmills.

In 1879, there were 113 windmills in East Yorkshire, excluding those in Hull, but 40 years later the number had fallen to just 18, as mill owners turned increasingly to steam engines to mill wheat.

Imported Canadian wheat, which was better for making bread, was also harder and could not be ground with grindstones.

The display in the Village Life gallery was put together by volunteers from the East Riding Rural Life project.

It includes fascinating “then-and-now” photographs of windmills that still exist– but as stumps, their movements long since removed.

Within a few years, the East Riding will again see large numbers of windmills – but as a powerhouse for “green” electricity generation.

However this process has been controversial, sparking protests from residents and bitter complaints that the Government is riding roughshod over local opinion by allowing every appeal so far against refused planning permission.