De Zwaluw, Burdaard
Encyclopedia
De Zwaluw is a smock mill
Smock mill
The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind...

 in Burdaard
Burdaard
Burdaard is a small village in Ferwerderadiel in the province Friesland of the Netherlands and has around 1080 citizens .-Windmills:There are two windmills in Burdaard. De Olifant is a drainage mill dating from 1867 which has been restored to working order. De Zwaluw is a corn, pearl barley and...

, Friesland
Friesland
Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...

, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 which is working commercially. The mill is listed as a Rijksmonument
Rijksmonument
A rijksmonument is a National Heritage Site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.-History and criteria:...

, number 15585.

History

The first mill on this site was a smock mill called De Windlust (English: The desire for wind) which was built for Douwe Dirks Drukker of Burum
Burum
Burum is a town in Kollumerland c.a., Friesland in the Netherlands. It is the site of a ground station of the Dutch Nationale SIGINT Organisatie , which intercepts satellite communications much like the U.S. National Security Agency....

 in 1841. This was a corn mill which stood 20 metres (21.9 yd) west of the present mill. Drukker sold the mill on 25 April 1851 to Klaas Freerks Steenhuizen for ƒ6,000. De Windlust was burnt down on 15 September 1874. De Zwaluw was built as a corn and pearl barley mill to replace it. The millwright
Millwright
A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman engaged with the construction and maintenance of machinery.Early millwrights were specialist carpenters who erected machines used in agriculture, food processing and processing lumber and paper...

 was G R van Wieren of Smitshuis. De Zwaluw was built for Klaas Steenhuizen. Between 1875 and 1878, the base of a paltrok mill was placed alongside De Zwaluw and driven by the mill. Steenhuizen had four sons, two of which worked the mill. Paulus worked in the pearl barley mill and Jan worked the sawmill. De Zwaluw was built with Patent sails, one of the first mills in the north of the Netherlands so equipped.

After the death of his father, Paulus Steenhuizen moved into the mill house with his wife Berber Bosma. They had two daughters, Janke and Reinje. Janke helped her father in the mill. She married Anne Hessel de Groot, who took over the mill after the death of Paulus Steenhuizen on 26 March 1936. In 1954, the mill lost a pair of sails. It worked by wind in this condition until 1960. The mill was worked in its latter years by Anne Hessel de Groot and Tjebbe Overzet until the death of Anne Hessel de Groot on 8 April 1966. The mill was listed as a Rijksmonument in 1971. On 11 November 1972, the mill was struck by lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...

 and burnt down, leaving the base and saw mill standing. Tjebbe Overzet died in 1974. The mill is now in the ownership of the Gemeente Ferwerderadiel.

Restoration by Fabrikaat Buurma of Oudeschans, Groningen
Groningen (province)
Groningen [] is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. In the east it borders the German state of Niedersachsen , in the south Drenthe, in the west Friesland and in the north the Wadden Sea...

 was started in 1984 and completed in 1987. When first restored, the mill had two Common sails and two Patent sails, but it now carries four Patent sails.

When the mill was first restored it was only as a landmark. Much of the equipment for milling was missing. Miller Jan Tollenaar finally got De Zwaluw restored as a working windmill in October 1988. At first, trade was rather slow, but this improved after De Hoop
De Hoop, Stiens
De Hoop is a smock mill in Stiens, Friesland, Netherlands which was rebuilt in 1993 after the earlier mill burned down. It is operational and manned by volunteers.-History:...

, Stiens
Stiens
Stiens is the largest town within the municipality of Leeuwarderadeel, with a population of about 7,800. The town hall of the municipality is located in Stiens....

 burnt down. Former customers of De Hoop then came to De Zwaluw. When De Hoop was rebuilt, trade there was slow because it had lost its market. The business at De Zwaluw has expanded to include a campsite and moorings.

The mill lies alongside the Dokkummer Ee, and is passed by participants in the Elfstedentocht
Elfstedentocht
The Elfstedentocht is the world's largest and longest speed skating competition and leisure skating tour, and is held irregularly in the province of Friesland, Netherlands.The tour, almost 200 km in length, is conducted on frozen canals, rivers and lakes between the eleven historic...

. The mill is grinding on a daily basis, with the sawmill at work on Saturdays.

Description

De Zwaluw is what the Dutch describe as an "achtkante stellingmolen". It is a smock mill with a stage. The brick base is five storeys with the stage at fourth floor level, 12.5 metre above ground level. The two storey smock is thatched as is the cap, which is winded by a tailpole and winch. The four Patent sails, which have a span of 23.6 metre, are carried in a cast iron windshaft which was cast by Ijzergieterij Versteeg-Ensink of Hardinxveld-Giessendam
Hardinxveld-Giessendam
Hardinxveld-Giessendam is a municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality had a population of 17,828 in 2004, and covers an area of 19.35 km² of which 2.44 km² is water....

 in 1985. This was the first windshaft cast by Versteeg-Ensink.

The windshaft also carries the brake wheel which has 70 cogs. This drives the conical lantern pinion wallower (38 staves)at the top of the upright shaft. At the bottom of the upright shaft, the great spur wheel drives four pairs of millstone
Millstone
Millstones or mill stones are used in windmills and watermills, including tide mills, for grinding wheat or other grains.The type of stone most suitable for making millstones is a siliceous rock called burrstone , an open-textured, porous but tough, fine-grained sandstone, or a silicified,...

s. Two pairs are used for making flour and two pairs are used to produce pearl barley. The flour stones are each driven by a stone nut with 30 staves and the pearl barley stones are each driven by a stone nut with 20 staves. A lantern pinion with 35 staves drives carries the drive to the saw via a shaft. At the opposite end of this shaft, a gear with 35 cogs drives a wallower with 44 cogs. This drives a gear with 26 cogs which drives another gear with 51 cogs on the axle of the frame saw.

Millers

De Windlust
  • Douwe Durks Drukker 1841-51
  • Klaas Freerks Steenhuizen 1851-74


De Zwaluw
  • Klaas Freerks Steenhuizen 1874-
  • Paulus Steenhuizen -1936
  • Jan Steenhuizen
  • Janke Steenhuizen
  • Anne Hessel de Groot -1966
  • Tjebbe Overzet -1966
  • Jan Tollenaar 1988 to date


References for above:-

Public access

The mill is open to the public 1 May to 1 October, Tuesday to Saturday 10:00 to 12:00 and 13:30 - 1700, and at other times by appointment.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK