The windmill De Valk has always been for grinding flower. The current brick windmill is the third one built in the 1700. the previous windmills in the same location were made of wood. In the 1700 because of the higher buildings around (the windmill anyway stands just outside of the old city walls and inside the city moat), the windmill was built much taller to be able to catch the wind undisturbed by the surrounding buildings. This is the reason why it had to be made of brick. I hope this helps.