De Hoop, Stiens

Geschiedenis

De Hoop is a smock mill in Stiens, Friesland, Netherlands which was rebuilt in 1993 after the earlier mill burned down. It is operational and manned by volunteers.HistoryThe first mill on this site was built in 1847 but stood only a few years before new owner Jan Pieters Duinkerk had it replaced by a larger mill which was finished in 1854 and operated by his son Pieter Jans Duinkerk. The new mill changed hands several times, the successive owners were Auke Jacobs Bakker, Dirk Jans van der Wal and Jan Johannes van der Leij. Van der Leij's son Johannes Jans inherited the mill and kept milling until the smock was demolished in 1922. The base was left standing and survived for over half a century as storage space.In 1976 the municipally Leeuwarderadeel bought the base and had the mill rebuilt by millwright Tacoma from Stiens. By 1979 the mill was back in full working order. A company "Molen De Hoop BV" was formed with local baker J. Bijlsma as the driving force behind the commercial operation of the mill. Miller was G.J. Klijnstra, later accompanied by S. Kuipers.In the early morning on New Year's Day 1992 a fireworks rocket set fire to the thatched smock, resulting in the destruction of mill. The insurance companies and the municipally all quickly agreed on rebuilding the mill which meant the new mill was completed in less than 16 months after the fire. The rebuild had the added bonus of having the opportunity to redesign and modernise the mill resulting in amongst others a state of the art computer-controlled production line. At the reopening on 23 April 1993 J. Bijlsma called the mill "the most modern corn mill in the world". The total construction cost exceeded ƒ2 million of which ƒ26.000 was raised by the local population.