More than ten years ago Suzanne Jong (58) and Rob Basten (59) grabbed their chance: they bought the Twuyvermolen In Sint Pancras. After a substantial renovation and restoration, the couple now live in their gem on the Alkmaar-Kolhorn canal. “It is a modern house in an old construction,” Rob describes their mill home.
Mills retired in 1924
The impressive wooden gears and the mortar of the polder mill from 1663 are the first thing you see when you walk in. They are carefully concealed behind glass panels. All mechanism, also at the top of the mill, can therefore be viewed safely and everything functions. Well, almost everything then.
Because his real work was no longer able to do the mill in the last hundred years. In 1924, ground mills were replaced. The Twuyvermolen also had to retire and the drainage to the canal was closed. And that connection wanted to restore the miller couple.
“It is the function of the mill; that the water can go back to the canal as it used to go,” says Suzanne. “And we tell all the visitors and school classes that we show around the history of the Geestmerambacht polder and for which such a mill is, but yes, we couldn’t show that,” adds Rob.
Help with flooding
They did not receive permission from the water board to construct the watercourse again. Rob: “That is why we made a kind of round -meal circuit: we pumped water up with the mortar, which went under the mill and then with a pipe back to the ditch where it came from. Pure as an educational function, to show how such a mill works.”
In the end they manage to get a permit. In September the work on the watercourse started that was completed this week. “This is the icing on the cake. And who knows that we will ever be really needed to help with grinding,” says Suzanne, referring to the flooding of recent years, where the Old mills deployed are.
The Twuyvermolen can be viewed for free. Look for visitor information for visitors website.