Grafelijke Korenmolen, Zeddam

Geschiedenis

The Grafelijke Korenmolen van Zeddam is a tower mill in Zeddam, the Netherlands, which has been restored to working order. The mill may have been built before 1441, making it the oldest windmill in existence in the Netherlands. It is listed as Rijksmonument number 9290.HistoryThe first reference to a mill on this site dates from 1441 which most likely refers to the current mill as there is no knowledge of there being an earlier mill. The first definite mention of a brick windmill is from the financial year 1453/1454. It was erected by Willem van der Leck, Lord Van den Bergh and has since always been in the possession of the counts van Bergh and their successors with only a short period of private ownership in the twentieth century. The farmers in the Land van den Bergh were subjected to mill soke, meaning they were obliged to have their grain milled at this mill. In 1712 the House of Van den Bergh was succeeded by the House of Hohenzollern. Major reconstruction works took place in 1839 with the addition of two extra floors, an entranceway at the ground floor and an extra pair of millstones. The outside staircase was moved inside. The dead curb for winding the cap was replaced with a live curb of wooden rollers in 1871. Changes made in the 1940s were partly undone in 1990 and cast iron rollers were fitted. The mill was sold in 1904 to H. Gerretschen while the castle Huis Bergh became property of Jan Herman van Heek in 1912. Van Heek bought the windmill in 1929 to prevent it from being fully demolished and he had the beginning demolition work repaired. Van Heek transferred his possessions to the foundation Stichting Huis Bergh in 1946. Further restoration work on the mill was performed in 1963, 1974 and 1990. In 2005 the stocks were replaced. A horse mill was reconstructed near the windmill in 1974. This combination of mills used to be quite common as the horse mill was used when there was no wind.