Foggy sunrise at Oud-Zuilen mills by Jeroen de Jongh Photography

About "Foggy sunrise at Oud-Zuilen mills"

by Jeroen de Jongh Photography

About the artwork

The Polder Buitenweg mill is a seesaw mill located just outside the village of Oud-Zuilen, in the Dutch province of Utrecht. The 1830 mill, which replaced a number of even smaller peasant mills, was milling until 2016. In 1931, the scoop wheel was replaced by an open screw pump. In 1972, the Buitenweg water board transferred the mill to the De Utrechtse Molens Foundation.

The small Buitenweg mill is right next to the much larger Westbroekse Molen. The special thing about this combination is that the smallest and the largest polder mills in the province of Utrecht stand next to each other. The upper house of the Buitenwegse Molen was painted red in 1931. This colour is common on seesaw mills in the Rhineland, but not in Utrecht, where the colours green and black are common.

The Westbroekse Molen is a ground-sailer just outside the village of Oud-Zuilen, located in the Utrecht municipality of Stichtse Vecht. The octagonal mill from 1753 is grinding capable. The mill can be used as a polder mill to drain the Westbroek polder. Its predecessor from 1650 was much closer to the Vecht, but was relocated in 1743 because the horses of passing carriages and barges got restless from the rotating sails. A tall tale has it that even the lord of Slot Zuylen once drove into the Vecht with his carriage and all.

Polder mills grinded water from the polder and ensured dry feet for centuries. From around 1100, the wild peat bogs in the west of the province of Utrecht were reclaimed.

From around 1500, the soil had subsided so much due to subsidence that natural drainage became increasingly difficult. The water had to be raised from the polder to the higher storage basin. The polder mills provided the solution: using a paddle wheel or screw pump, they grinded the water uphill. Without mills, the polders would have flooded again many centuries ago.