Pumping station "De Waard"

From mill to pumping station

What is now no more than a (converted) stump, used to be a polder mill, called the Waardassacke or, Molen De Waard'. Built for the first time in 1671, struck by lightning around 1865 and burned down and rebuilt in 1866. In 1922 it was dismantled as a windmill, with the lower tower being converted into a pumping station (and later into a house). The pumping station took over the work of this mill and another mill.

The first polder mills appeared in the area at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century. They were just in time. Because the marshlands had been cleared and ditches had been dug, the peat soil had started to collapse and therefore started to sink.
This made it wetter again. The farmers built dikes around the farmlands and polder mills pumped the water up, over the dikes.
There was a downside to success. The more water the mills pumped out, the harder the land clumps. This process is still ongoing.

Laurien van der Vaart