The iconic Dutch windmills still stand although not so many are still in operation. Molen de Roos is the one remaining working windmill in Delft and if you dare, you can climb the vertical, wooden ladders to peer at the inner gears and ropes. I dared. Grubb called me nuts but there he was right behind me.
Molen de Roos was built specifically for grinding grain and in the little gift shop you could purchase artfully packaged bags of flour and baked goods made with Molen de Roos flour.
Life wasn’t always smooth for this windmill. The original structure was built on this site in 1352. It happily ground grain until the early 1600s when the miller opted to go for the bigger profits and switched to grinding malt for Delft’s emerging brewing industry. Along came a powerful storm in the late 1600s destroying the windmill. The windmill was rebuilt. Around 1760, the windmill was substantially rebuilt to “modernize” and this included heightening the mill without shoring up the foundation. Unfortunately, the nearby Yeast and Spirits factory extracted a fair amount of groundwater and in 1929, a tram line running very near the windmill was installed and as a result, Molen de Roos began to lean. The righting of the windmill took nearly a decade.
Above: the inner workings and sacks of flour waiting to be pullied down
Above: views from the outer platform.
At some point, the mill switched back to happily grinding grain and today, it remains sturdily providing flour for local bakers.
Wow, that was amazing to learn that history! I kept saying “oh wow” while I was reading it. had no idea the windmills lasted and were used for centuries. I wonder why other countries don’t have these type of windmills. Perhaps other countries have more swiftly moving streams so mills were built using water instead of wind? (It made me think of one of Charlie’s and my favorite TV series “Jonathan Creek”. JC lived in a windmill. That was in England. So … hmm, maybe they had them there, too.)
There are windmills here that were built specifically for pumping water as part of the whole water management system. Key in keeping this low land country from being inundated by the sea. I was going to do a little research on that.