De Zwaluw, Oudemolen
Encyclopedia
De Zwaluw is a smock mill
Smock mill
The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind...

 in Oudemolen, Drenthe
Drenthe
Drenthe is a province of the Netherlands, located in the north-east of the country. The capital city is Assen. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and Germany to the east.-History:Drenthe, unlike many other parts of the Netherlands, has been a...

, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. It was built in 1837 and is listed as a Rijksmonument
Rijksmonument
A rijksmonument is a National Heritage Site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.-History and criteria:...

, number 38148.

History

De Zwaluw was built in 1837 by millwright
Millwright
A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman engaged with the construction and maintenance of machinery.Early millwrights were specialist carpenters who erected machines used in agriculture, food processing and processing lumber and paper...

s L Reinds of Beilen and B Sluter of De Groeve. The mill incorporated parts from a windmill at Schipborg
Schipborg
Schipborg is a village in the Dutch province of Drenthe. It is a part of the municipality of Aa en Hunze, and lies about 11 km northeast of Assen.In 2001, the village of Schipborg had 660 inhabitants...

 which had been demolished. It replaced a post mill
Post mill
The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. The defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. The earliest post mills in England are thought to have...

 which itself had replaced a watermill
Watermill
A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...

 on the Drentsche Aa
Drentsche Aa
The Drentsche Aa is a river rising in the Dutch province of Drenthe, flowing through the province of Groningen. It ends in the Schipsloot near Haren, which flows into the Noord-Willemskanaal, however originally it ended into the Selwerderdiep...

 river. The mill came into the ownership of the Greving family in 1876. It was worked by successive generations of the Greving family until 1947 when a sailstock broke.

In 1951, millwright Christiaan Bremer of Adorp
Adorp
Adorp is a village in the municipality of Winsum, in the Netherlands. It is located about 6 km north of Groningen.Until 1990, Adorp was a separate municipality.Adorp is next to Sauwerd and Groningen...

, Groningen
Groningen (province)
Groningen [] is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. In the east it borders the German state of Niedersachsen , in the south Drenthe, in the west Friesland and in the north the Wadden Sea...

 fitted a new cast iron windshaft to replace the previous wooden one. This came from a windmill at Termunten
Termunten
Termunten is a village in the Dutch province of Groningen. It is a part of the municipality of Delfzijl, and lies about 33 km east of Groningen.Termunten was a separate municipality until 1990, when it was merged with Delfzijl....

, Groningen which had burnt down in 1944. A new pair of Patent sails was fitted at this time. The restored mill was officially opened on 27 September 1951. The mill was out of use from 1970 and in 1980 was purchased from the Greving family by the Gemeente Vries
Vries (Drenthe)
Vries is a town in the Dutch province of Drenthe. It is a part of the municipality of Tynaarlo, and lies about 8 km north of Assen.Vries was a separate municipality until 1998, when it was merged with Eelde and Zuidlaren....

. A further restoration was undertaken in 1982. In 2008-09, further restoration work was carried out at the mill at a cost of
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

36,524.

Description

De Zwaluw is what the Dutch describe as an "achtkante grondzeiler". It is a three storey smock mill on a single storey brick base. There is no stage, the sails reaching almost to the ground. The smock and cap are thatched. The mill is winded by a tailpole and winch. The four Common sails have a span of 20 metre are carried in a cast iron windshaft, which was cast by Fabrikaat Prins van Oranje of Den Haag, Zuid Holland in 1893. It has been lengthened by about 1 metres (39.4 in) for use in De Zwaluw. The windshaft also carries the brake wheel, which has 60 cogs. The brake wheel drives the wallower (31 cogs) at the top of the upright shaft. At the bottom of the upright shaft the great spur wheel, which has 79 cogs, drives the 1.4 metre diameter Cullen millstones via a lantern pinion stone nut which has 25 staves each. The millstones are driven overdrift. As of October 2009, the inner sail stock is the oldest surviving example made by Christiaan Bremer.

Public access

De Zwaluw is open on Saturdays from 11:00 to 16:00. During the summer months it is also open on Wednesdays from 14:00 to 16:00.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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