The Molen van Vledder 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 type ...

Vledder Vledder () is a village in the Dutch province of Drenthe. It is a part of the municipality of Westerveld, and lies about 24 km northwest of Hoogeveen. It is located along the small river Vledder Aa. History Prehistoric settlements have been f ...

Drenthe Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Nov ...

, which is used as holiday accommodation. The mill was built in 1968 and is listed as a

Rijksmonument A rijksmonument (, ) 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 ...

, number 357823.

History

A mill stood on this site until 1958. In 1968, the present mill was built by

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

J D Medendorp of

Zuidlaren Zuidlaren (Noordenvelds: ''Zuudlaoren'') is a village in the province of Drenthe in the Northern Netherlands. Zuidlaren has just over 10,000 inhabitants and is situated on natural heightened land which is called the Hondsrug. The village is part ...

, incorporating parts from two demolished mills. (Click on "Geschiedenis" to view.) The 1877-built drainage mill ''De Kooi'',

Kantens Kantens is a village in the Netherlands, Dutch province of Groningen (province), Groningen. It is located in the municipality of Het Hogeland, about 16 km north of the city of Groningen (city), Groningen. It had a population of around 965 incl ...

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

which had been demolished in 1961 and the 1862-built drainage mill ''Gebroeders Bos'', which stood at

Hoogkerk Hoogkerk is a town in the Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Penn ...

, Groningen and was demolished in 1963. The mill is used as a holiday home.

Description

The ''Molen van Vledder'' is what the Dutch describe as an "achtkante stellingmolen". It is a two-storey smock mill with a stage on a three-storey brick base. The stage is at second-floor level, above ground level. The smock and cap are

thatch Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

ed. The mill is winded by a tailpole and winch. The four Common sails have a span of and are carried in a steel ''windshaft''. The ''windshaft'' also carries the ''brake wheel'' which has 31 cogs. This drives the ''wallower'' (24 cogs) at the top of the ''upright shaft''. At the bottom of the ''upright shaft'', the ''great spur wheel'', which has 58 cogs, drives the diameter French Burr stones via a ''lantern pinion stone nut'' with 31 staves. (Click on "Technische gegevens" to view.)

References

{{Dutch Windmills Windmills in Drenthe Smock mills in the Netherlands Windmills completed in 1968 Rijksmonuments in Drenthe Octagonal buildings in the Netherlands Westerveld