Pasture drainage mill ‘De Hadel’
A ‘rocker’ water mill – so named because the top of the mill rocks back and forth a little in high winds…
Next to cheese farm ‘De Catharinahoeve’, on Zeilenmakerspad, there is a polder mill with a span of just 8 meters. This is water mill ‘De Hadel’. Pasture drainage mills – which, like the ‘rocker’, are a type of polder mill – were used for ‘underdrainage’ in the polder. The rotation of the mill sets a paddle wheel in motion, which then transfers water from low-lying sections of ground to the ditches. This particular type of mill is mainly found in the province of North Holland. Donated by a former Zaandijk resident from Benningbroek, the 19th-century pasture drainage mill now functions to keep the Zaanse Schans water flowing. It is known as a rocker mill because the upper green section rocks a little in high winds when the mill is working. Rocker mills are believed to have been used as water mills from as early as the 13th century. Because the mechanism that turns the mill towards the wind is on the outside of the structure – the light green tail and the turner wheel – it is called an ‘external turner’.
- Pasture drainage mill ‘De Hadel’ in the garden of the Benningbroek rectory, around 1960
- Miller Jo Vooren at ‘his’ mill, ‘De Hadel’ in the Zaanse Schans, around 1970