De Rat, IJlst
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

De Rat () 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 ...
in
IJlst IJlst (; ) is a city in Friesland, Netherlands. It is located about 3 km southwest of Sneek. It lies within the municipality of Súdwest-Fryslân and had a population of approximately 3,140 in January 2017. History It received city right ...
, Friesland, Netherlands, which was originally built in the seventeenth century at
Zaanstreek The Zaan () is a small river in the province of North Holland in the northwestern Netherlands and the name of a district through which it runs. The river was originally a side arm of the IJ bay and travels 13.5 kilometers (8½ miles) through the m ...
,
North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...
. In 1828 it was moved to IJlst, where it worked using
wind power Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity ge ...
until 1920 and then by electric motor until 1950. The mill was bought by the town of IJlst in 1956 and restored in the mid-1960s. Further restoration in the mid-1970s returned the mill to full working order. ''De Rat'' is working for trade and is used as a training mill. The mill 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 ...
(No. 39880).


History

''De Rat'' was originally built in the seventeenth century in the
Zaanstreek The Zaan () is a small river in the province of North Holland in the northwestern Netherlands and the name of a district through which it runs. The river was originally a side arm of the IJ bay and travels 13.5 kilometers (8½ miles) through the m ...
area of
North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...
. It was known there as ''De Walrot'' () which was generally shortened to ''De Rot''. Earlier it was thought the mill was in existence in 1683 but archival research,
dendrochronology Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of chronological dating, dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed in a tree. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, ...
and an inscription in an old beam show the mill was actually built in 1711. Following the
Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
, the mill fell out of use. At the same time,
agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
in Friesland was enjoying a boom, with many farms being built or having their old buildings replaced, creating a demand for sawn
timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...
. In 1828, ''De Watterrot'' was bought at
auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...
by William Ringnalda and Hessel Aten Vellinga. It was dismantled and
ship A ship is a large watercraft, vessel that travels the world's oceans and other Waterway, navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally disti ...
ped across the
Zuiderzee The Zuiderzee or Zuider Zee (; old spelling ''Zuyderzee'' or ''Zuyder Zee''), historically called Lake Almere and Lake Flevo, was a shallow bay of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands. It extended about 100 km (60 miles) inla ...
to IJlst, where it was named ''De Rat''. In 1852, the mill was in the joint ownership of Jan Janszoon Ringnalda and his wife Boukje Hessels; and Gerben Ringnalda and his wife Johanna Hartgerink. In 1854, the firm of H A Ringnalda & Co was formed. The '' Leeuwarden Courant'' reported that the mill was also a
flour mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...
at this time. In 1859, the mill was purchased by Walle Melisz Oppendijk, who was related to the Ringnalda family via William Ringnalda's marriage to Richtje Oppendijk. This year saw the last mention of the mill also being a corn mill. By 1868, it had reverted to being solely a saw mill. Oppendijk now owned two sawmills. The other mill was burnt down in 1873 and rebuilt as a
steam powered A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
sawmill in 1874. In the second half of the 19th Century, ''De Rat'' was known for the high quality of timber produced. In 1918, a
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 ...
was installed. The cap, sails and stage were removed in 1920, and the mill was then worked entirely by electricity. The mill closed in 1950. On 5 December 1955, then-owners NV Houthandel asked for permission to demolish the mill. In April 1956 it was reported that the mill was not in bad condition. It was recommended that permission to demolish it be refused and that the town of IJlst take over the mill. On 17 September 1956, ''De Rat'' was purchased by the town for ƒ3,000. In 1966, the mill was restored 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'') ...
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 ...
,
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 Jan ...
. The cap and brake wheel came from a drainage mill at Scheemderzwaag,
Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...
, which had been demolished in 1959. The windshaft came from the '' Monnikenmolen'',
Sint Jansklooster Sint Jansklooster (Dutch Low Saxon: ''′t Klooster'') is a village in the municipality Steenwijkerland of the Dutch province of Overijssel. It started as a monastery. The village is located near the Weerribben-Wieden National Park, and organise ...
,
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 used to house a
pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...
and afterwards was used by a sailing school. Between 1976 and 1980, the mill was restored to working order. The work was done by millwrights Tacona BV of
Stiens Stiens is a town in the municipality of Leeuwarden, Netherlands. As of January 2017, the town had a population of about 7,545. Between 1944 and 2018, it was the capital of the municipality of Leeuwarderadeel. History The village was first mention ...
. The fully restored mill was officially reopened on 27 May 1978. Further restoration work was carried out in 1987 and 1996. In 2005, a new cap was made for the mill, replacing the one fitted in 1966 and replicating the original cap in appearance. The new cap was fitted on 19 April 2005. Ownership of the mill now lies with the Gemeente
Wymbritseradiel Wymbritseradeel (; official ) was a rural municipality () in the Dutch province of Friesland from 1984 until 2011. An earlier type of municipality () of the same name existed from 1500 until 1984. History Wymbritseradeel was formed from the d ...
, while the mill is operated by ''Stichting Houtzaagmolen De Rat'' (). The mill is used as a training mill by the Gild Fryske Mounders ().


Description

''De Rat'' is what the Dutch describe as a "stellingmolen" . It is a three-storey
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 ...
on a three-storey 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, 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 mill is winded by tailpole and winch. The sails are Common sails, fitted with leading edges on the Fok System. They have a span of . The sails are carried on a cast-iron ''windshaft'', which was cast by Zallinda of
Zwolle Zwolle () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the Capital city, capital of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel ...
, Overijssel. The windshaft also carries the ''brake wheel'', which has 59 cogs. This drives the ''wallower'' (29 cogs) at the top of the ''upright shaft''. At the bottom of the ''upright shaft'', a ''crown wheel'' with 43 cogs drives a
crankshaft A crankshaft is a mechanical component used in a reciprocating engine, piston engine to convert the reciprocating motion into rotational motion. The crankshaft is a rotating Shaft (mechanical engineering), shaft containing one or more crankpins, ...
via a gear with 40 cogs. The crankshaft converts the circular motion into the reciprocal motion for three vertical frame saws. The mill can handle logs up to long.


Sawyers

;Zaanstreek *Cornelis Gijs (1683- ) *Jan Janszoon Koningh ( -1707) *Jan IJsbrandsz Koningh (1707–27) *''Koningh family'' *IJsbrand Koningh ( -1805) *Jacob Schippers (1810- ) ;IJlst *William Hotzes Ringnalda (1828- ) *Jan Janszoon te Velde (1852–54) *Gerben Ringnalda (1952–54) *H A Ringnalda & Co (1854–91) *Wed. W.J. Oppedijk (1891- ) *NV Houthandel ( -1950) References for above:-


Public access

''De Rat'' is open to the public on Saturdays between 09:00 and 17:00. From May to September, the mill is also open on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 12:00 to 17:00.


References


External links


Website of houtzaagmolen De Rat
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rat, IJlst Windmills in Friesland Windmills completed in 1828 Smock mills in the Netherlands Sawmills Grinding mills in the Netherlands Rijksmonuments in Friesland Octagonal buildings in the Netherlands