Dutch Windmills

[Lady Cosmos]

Last Saturday it was Open Windmill Day. There are 9 windmills within 3 miles of my house.

Windmill De Put, This mill is a flourmill, every Saturday, I buy flour for making bread and for pancakes. They sell 7 different types of flour.



Windmill D'Heesterboom, built in 1804, this is a sawmill. They still produce wooden boards from whole trees.



This is the inside of the mill. This is a tree trunk ready to be sawn in pieces.



This is the top of the mill.



This is a mill built in 1735, the original mill was built in 1566. Before that there was a horse-driven mill. There is a waterwheel pushing the water from one side of the stream to the other.



This is the inside of the mill, the wood you see comes from the Buxus tree in Czech Republic. The metal parts, when repaired or bought new, come from England



The Frogmill, built in 1752. It also has a wooden waterwheel.

[Lady Cosmos]

[tim]

Brilliant photos - & mills! Great serenity?

Didn't know they could saw logs.

[lorna]

Lovely photos. How great to live near not one but NINE :)
Lorna

[Hyacinth]

I'd no idea of the diversity of use, either, Tim. And how lovely to be able to buy fresh-milled flour. As buildings, aren't they spectacular?!

Many thanks for posting the pix, LC and for the explanations. Any more info, btw? Their age -  are they still being built? I see there are  different styles of building pictured there.....are there more?

Fascinating!

Lishka

[Mrs Ava]

Amazing buildings!  Had no idea they were used for anything other than grinding flour!  Lovely clear sharp photos to. 

[Curryandchips]

Genuinely fascinating. Thank you for sharing that with us.

[Lady Cosmos]

A bit more information asked by Lishka:
I only showed a few mills making flour, sawing wood and of course the watermills.
The wings are about 25 mtr. on the picture you can see that there is some material on it. There was not much wind last Saterday, so than the material goes on and an extra board at the bottums of the wings. Catching the wind.
The wings are going round by wind or by the waterwheel.
Most mills in the Netherlands are flour mills, than some woodsaw mills, some oil mills ( making oil from seed) paper mills and of course the water mills. They are very important in "the fight against the water". :o
There are 1048 wind mills and 108 water mills in the Netherlands and most of them, 220 ones , are in Zuid-Holland, that is NOT the south of the Netherlans, but the south of the Hollanden. (That is from the time that the Netherlands war under regime from Napoleon) It is the part on the coast from Noordwijk till Zeeland (Deltawerken) about, about he ;D  .
The water mills keep the waterlevel right.
The first picture  is the Put, build in 1619 by Jan Janzoon Put.
Second picture: build in 1804, there were 3 of them, next to each other,
Third picture: re-Build 1735, 1566 the first one,
Fourth: kikkermill: build 1752
At the time from 1628 till the time of Napoleon tax man were living at the mills to check  the taxes at the mils, how much flour etc..

[Robert_Brenchley]

Any idea when windmills were invented? The Romans had quite sophisticated wheel systems for mine drainage and other uses, but as far as I know they all they used slave power.

[GREENWIZARD]

just fantastic.......also love the wooden clog :)

[Lady Cosmos]

The question Who invented the mill is still a bit of a strugle. Many western countries claim that right, and many people think it were the Romans ( 200 years before Christ in Egypt there were water mills), but no
It is actuall a KELTIC invention.
They used to have rubbing stones for rubbing the grains to feed themselves. That was already 500 years before Christ so long before the Roman were in sight.
Later they used bigger stones and had slaves to do the work, than dogs, than horses, and than the wind.
They call it Keltish Kweern.
The first windmill is build by Hero of Alexandria circa 1st entury AD. (Persia)
The first windmills in the Netherlands started in the 13th century and the VOC was very glad with the wood mills because they needed a lot of wood for their ships.
It was a Dutch invention the rotation of the head in 1593 by Cornelis Corneliszoon from Uitgeest so than the ill could be used in all directions and all winds.
There are paint mills ( in de Zaanse Schans) as well, there I get my paint powder for painting icons.

[luckystar]

Hi Lady Cosmos, Is Molen de Put in Leiden by any chance?!  :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

There was a watermill on the site of our allotments; I believe it was built in the 17th Century. All trace has disappeared and I'm not sure exactly where it was, but the stream at the bottom is the old mill leat. It's actually at the uphill end of my plot, so if it floods it's all too easy to get it pooling for days. I've shifted soil around a fair bit to fill in the low spots and stop this happening. There have been a couple of millstones found; there's one in the stream bank a few plots below mine. I had a small one; the surface was rather weathered suggesting that it had been cut from a surface outcrop, and when I looked into it, it seems it was made before the 19th century; the later ones are bigger and more neatly worked, with no signs of weathering. Unfortunately it was stolen - you could actually pick it up and carry it a few yards, and somebody did.

[Lady Cosmos]

Terrible >:( >:( People steel everything

Is it not: :"Since I know people, I like animals"?

[djbrenton]

There's a windmill in the middle of Nottingham near Trixiebelle's site.

[Mrs Ava]

There is a windmill in Chelmsford also.

[supersprout]

Fabulous pictures Lady C, and fascinating stories about their development! I've sent a link to chums in Norfolk who also buy fresh bread and flour from their local mill, which grinds white and wholemeal - not anywhere near seven varieties :o They often run out of wholemeal, and say it's because the wind is in the wrong direction. Cornelis Corneliszoon must be a national hero in the Netherlands!

The sawmill is amazing.

Thank you for this thread Lady C :)

[Jesse]

Great photos LC :D

[Niamh]

I have just returned from Holland, but I only saw the windmills while on the train between Rotterdam and Amsterdam!

Loved my trip, will definitely head back to see more of your lovely (flat) countryside!
As I live in Cork, this city is full of hills, so nice level countryside is a big attraction!

Niamh