Our next TIMS Online Presentation will be on the 29th of November.
We warmly invite all members and friends of mills to our 6th Online Presentation of 2025. This time, our speaker will be Eddy de Saedeleer, a long-time TIMS member, who will present the plans for the TIMS Mid-Tour 2026, to be held in Belgium. The tour will be organised by Eddy and the Belgian TIMS members, who look forward to welcoming participants to explore the country’s exceptional milling heritage.
The proposed route will take participants through Flanders, covering both West Flanders and East Flanders (33 locations), as well as the Campine region in the provinces of Antwerp and Flemish Brabant (13 locations). The tour will also extend southward into the historic territories of the former County of Flanders - partly in Hainaut (Belgium) and partly in French Flanders (France), adding another seven sites. Remarkably, in some of these areas, elderly residents still speak the old Flemish language.
In total, 53 locations are planned: 49 mills and 4 photoshoots. The list includes 31 windmills, 13 watermills, 2 horse mills, 1 farm mill, and even a treadwheel once used by a dog. Participants will also encounter a statue of a miller and four museum collections.
Among the windmills, visitors will discover a fascinating variety — from postmills with open trestles or roundhouses, to stone mills on mounds or ground-sailed types, some featuring reefing stages. Highlights include postmills with traditional Flemish three-piece wooden stocks, examples with Van Bussel-type stocks, and even a postmill with multiple panniers (combuse). One of the featured mills is a war survivor, while another boasts a famous collar cap.
The watermills are equally diverse, including those with and without filling ponds. Some produce electricity (one dating back to World War I), while others still grind corn or press oil using edge runner stones. Visitors will see authentic gear wheel pits, paired stones, and even shade trees (tilia) planted to protect the waterwheels. One of the highlights will be a working tide mill near the River Scheldt, and the tour will conclude at a fully restored paper-making watermill.
Adding to the variety, the programme includes a farm jenever distillery, several operational horse mills, and small local museums that illustrate the region’s rich milling history. Participants might even have the chance to sample the unique “windmill beaker.”
Finally, the tour will celebrate the miller’s craft, now officially recognised in Flanders as part of the region’s intangible cultural heritage.
TIMS members will automatically receive the Zoom link to the Online Presentation by email.
When you are not a TIMS member you can register for the presentation. In that case please complete the form here:
https://forms.gle/gaj86MMJPRHkVz2u8
After registering, we will send you the Zoom link and further details closer to the event date.
Our previous TIMS Online Presentation "60 Years TIMS - What is TIMS all about?" was held on the 25th of October . . .
The video recording is available under this link.
