Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: Oudorp

The Oudorperhout is the oldest polder in the Netherlands. The area of 42 hectares is bordered by the centuries-old cobbled road "Munnikenweg" and the “Hoornse Vaart” with its windmills . After the village of Oudorp was merged with the city of Alkmaar, part of the polder remained open and developed into a unique meadow landscape with many birds, ponds, ditches, reed beds and unique plants. In the Oudorperhout the remains of two castles built in 1290 are visible: “Nieuwburg” and “Middelburg”.

Along the Molenkade on the banks of the Hoornsevaart are four of the six surviving windmills of Oudorp, once a separate village and municipality, now surrounded by modern housing and annexed to the city of Alkmaar in 1972. Originally there were six windmills on the dike - built from 1627 to 1630 - to drain the adjoining polder. One burnt down in 1688 and one was dismantled, to be rebuilt at the Netherlands Open-Air Museum in Arnhem. While it was there in storage, during World War II, it was destroyed by a British bomb. The four mills are simply called Strijkmolen B, C, D en E . Mill “C” burned down twice - 1998 and 2004 - but is rebuilt again. A strijkmolen is a water mill with a very low elevation, which "smooths" the water from one storage basin to another. The mill itself does not have the function of a polder mill, although its construction is similar. In fact, it is a storage pumping station.The term strijkmolen was only used in the province of North Holland.