The Oude Molen ( English: ''Old Mill'') or Molen van Houben (English: ''Houben's Mill'') is a

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...

located on the Oude Molenweg 6 in

Simpelveld Simpelveld (; ) is a municipality and a town in the southeastern Netherlands. It is part of the municipal cooperative unit Parkstad Limburg. Simpelveld is part of the ''Mergelland'', named after the presence of chalk (mergel), hill country popu ...

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 ...

. Built in 1774 along the

Eyserbeek The Eyserbeek (; ) is a river in the province of Limburg, Netherlands. The Eyserbeek is a right-bank tributary to the river Geul, which later joins the Meuse. Rising in Bocholtz and flowing through Simpelveld and Eys, the Eyserbeek eventually ...

river, the watermill functioned as

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

until the 1960s. During this time it was restored several times. In 1960 the mill stopped functioning, and a year later the land upstream was disowned by the local government. Currently it functions as housing. The mill is a

national monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

(nr 33593). Of the original mill only the millhouse and the iron breastshot

water wheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous b ...

, with corresponding

flume A flume is a human-made channel for water, in the form of an open declined gravity chute whose walls are raised above the surrounding terrain, in contrast to a trench or ditch. Flumes are not to be confused with aqueducts, which are built to t ...

, remain.

Gallery

File:Simpelveld-Oudemolen-1.JPG, View from the west File:Simpelveld-Oude Molen (2).jpg, Flume and housing, viewed from the west File:Simpelveld-Oude Molen (4).jpg, Flume File:Simpelveld-Oudemolen-5.JPG, Water wheel

Gallery

See also