De Berk (English: '' The Birch'') is a

smock mill The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded, thatched, or shingled tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind. This t ...

Barger-Compascuum Barger-Compascuum is a village in the Dutch municipality of Emmen. It is in a peat-producing region of Drenthe. , an open-air museum, is dedicated to the peat history of the region. Borger-Compascuum is located in the Bourtange moor between Ger ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. It was built in 1983.

History

De Berk was originally built c. 1850 at Drantum,

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It was rebuilt after a fire in 1870. (Click on "Geschiedenis" to view) The mill was last worked commercially in 1952. In 1979, the mill was brought to the Netherlands by miller H E A Bokkers, of

Overijssel Overijssel (; ; ; ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the eastern part of the country. The province's name comes from the perspective of the Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht, Episcopal principality of Utrecht ...

. The mill was erected in the Veenpark, Barger-Compascuum in 1983. It was erected near the site of a mill which had been demolished in 1936. As of summer 2009, the mill is not in full working order, as repairs are required.

Description

De Berk is what the Dutch describe as an "achtkant stellingmolen", an eight-sided smock mill with a stage. It is a two-storey smock mill on a two-storey brick base. The stage is at first-floor level, it is above ground level. The smock and cap are

thatch Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, Phragmites, water reed, Cyperaceae, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), Juncus, rushes, Calluna, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away fr ...

ed. The four Common sails have a span of . The wooden ''windshaft'' with a cast-iron poll end carries a ''brake wheel'' which has 62 cogs. (Click on "Technische gegevens" to view) This drives the ''wallower'' at the top of the ''upright shaft''. The ''wallower'' has 34 cogs. The ''great spur wheel'', at the lower end of the ''upright shaft'' has 100 cogs. This drives the lantern pinion ''stone nut'' with 37 staves. The millstones are driven ''overdrift''. They are diameter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berk, Drenthe Windmills in Drenthe Windmills completed in 1983 Grinding mills in the Netherlands Smock mills in the Netherlands Octagonal buildings in the Netherlands Buildings and structures in Emmen, Netherlands