De Westermolen is a smock mill in

Kollumerpomp Kollumerpomp (Low Saxon and West Frisian: ''De Pomp'') is a village in Noardeast-Fryslân in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. It had a population of 478 in January 2017. Before 2019, the village was part of the Kollumerland en Nieuwkr ...

Friesland Friesland ( ; ; official ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia (), named after the Frisians, is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen (p ...

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 ...

which was built in 1845. The mill has been restored to working order. It is listed as a

Rijksmonument A (, ) is a national heritage site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE) acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. At the end of February 2015, the Netherlands had 61,822 l ...

, number 23746.

History

''De Westermolen'' was built in 1845 to drain the Ooster- en Wester- Nieuwkruisland

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrology, hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as levee, dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclamation, Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a ...

. As well as draining the polder, it could also pump water into the polder. The mill worked until 1959, when a stock broke in a storm. Permission was then sought to demolish the mill, but this was refused. On 4 March 1961, the mill was bought by the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Kollumerland en Nieuwkruisland Kollumerland en Nieuwkruisland (; ), officially abbreviated as Kollumerland c.a., is a former municipality in the northern Netherlands, located in the province of Friesland. In 2019 it merged with the municipalities of Dongeradeel and Ferwerderadi ...

for ƒ1. The mill was restored at a cost of ƒ7,500. A

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

was placed in the mill to work the Archimedes' screw. A further restoration in 1984 by

millwright A millwright is a craftsman or skilled tradesman who installs, dismantles, maintains, repairs, reassembles, and moves machinery in factories, power plants, and construction sites. The term ''millwright'' (also known as ''industrial mechanic'') ...

Thijs Jellema of Burdaard saw the diesel engine replaced by an

electric motor An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a electromagnetic coil, wire winding to gene ...

. Further work by Jellema in 1987 returned the mill to working order. Ownership of the mill had passed to the Monumentenstichting Kollumerland c.a. en Nieuwkruisland by 1996, when further restoration work was carried out. An electrically driven pump now stands next to the mill.

Description

''De Westermolen'' is what the Dutch describe as a ''Grondzeiler''. It is a two-storey smock mill on a single-storey base. There is no stage, the sails reaching down almost to ground level. The mill is winded by tailpole and winch. 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 sails are Common sails. The sails on the inner stock have a span of , while those on the outer stock have a span of . The sails are carried on a cast-iron ''windshaft'' which was cast by Prins van Oranje,

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, in 1870. The ''windshaft'' also carries the ''brake wheel'' which has 60 cogs. This drives the ''wallower'' (33 cogs) at the top of the upright shaft. At the bottom of the upright shaft is the ''crown wheel'', which has 41 cogs, drives a gearwheel with 42 cogs on the axle of the Archimedes' screw. The axle of the Archimedes' screw is diameter. The screw is diameter . It is inclined at 16.7°. Each revolution of the screw lifts of water. The Archimedes' screw that pumped water into the polder has been removed.

Public access

''De Westermolen'' is open on Friday mornings. It is also open on Saturday mornings if there is enough wind to work the mill.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westermolen, Kollumerpomp Windmills in Friesland Windmills completed in 1845 Smock mills in the Netherlands Windpumps in the Netherlands Rijksmonuments in Friesland Octagonal buildings in the Netherlands