European watermill

Timeline

1. c. 750–900River valleys around Aachen · RhinelandThe Carolingian Empire encouraged building watermills along rivers at monasteries and royal estates; vertical undershot wheels drove millstones for grain, monastery archives began recording mill revenues, and the model of mills operated as a church and lordly monopoly took initial shape.
2. 1031–1040Seine valley, Normandy · NormandyPopulation growth and arable expansion in Western Europe in the 1030s spurred a boom in watermill construction; in Normandy, Flanders, and the Rhine basin mills were used not only for grinding wheat but also for fulling and iron forging, and lords levied a mill toll (multure) on peasants for grain processing, making the watermill a standard feature of the manorial economy.
3. c. 1100–1400Flanders · FlandersIn the 12th-14th centuries horizontal waterwheels spread on slower-flowing rivers; the Flemish textile industry used water power to drive fulling stocks and trip hammers, extending mills from grain processing to a power source for handicrafts, laying the foundation for the pre-industrial 'Medieval Industrial Revolution'.