Schiedam is a city with a centuries-old history in which the mills have played an important role. In 1880 there were 400 distilleries in the city producing the famous Schiedam jenever and around 20 windmills which ground grain for them. The mills, warehouses, characteristic distillery buildings and the canals and many monuments in the historic centre bear witness to this golden age of the jenever industry.

In the heyday of the jenever industry, around 1880, there were various City windmills in Schiedam most of which were situated around the town centre. Three of them were saw-mills, three ground grain for the bakers and the other windmills in the city ground grain for the distilleries. At the beginning of the 20th century the flourishing time came to an end and the jenever industry declined. Already from the middle of the 19th century no new windmills were built. The steam engine had entered the scene and because of this the distilleries switched to using steam flourmills. The “giants” of Schiedam fell into disrepair and were broken down.

In 1880 there were also windmills in the countryside surrounding the city. These were polder mills, which drained the soggy land in order to make it usable. De Babbersmolen (Babbers windmill), purchased by the Schiedam Windmills Foundation, was originally a polder mill. The traces of several polder mills around Schiedam are still visible in the landscape.