In response to a review, it is argued that recent research has shown the incorrectness of many previously held ideas. The watermill was already well established in the Roman period, and its spread throughout Europe was not a feature of the early Middle Ages. The great medieval contribution to milling technology was the windmill, though it made an impact only where waterpower was inadequate. Its success contrasted with the limited use of tidemills, probably not a medieval invention, and of industrial mills, whose importance has been overrated. Technical feasibility was not widely followed up because largescale production was inappropriate to an agrarian, poor, and locally-geared medieval economy.