Nearly all the windmills in the southern Dutch town of Kinderdijk have been restored since it was named a World Heritage Site in 1997. However, the restoration of the last one has proved particularly difficult and expensive. On Wednesday, it was finally standing straight again. 

There's a light drizzle falling, no more than 15 cars in the parking lot, and just a few tourists in rain coats standing about. Nevertheless, windmill builder Ad Wisse makes time to give them a guided tour. He works for the foundation World Heritage Kinderdijk, which runs the site.

“This is how the tourists enter the site. You see windmills along the left and right of these two canals. The canal on the right is the water reservoir of the Nederwaard polder, the canal on the left is the water reservoir of the Overwaard. It’s all water around here, which explains all these windmills.”

Special community
Kinderdijk features two rows of eight windmills, which were built to pump out the polders’ excess water. A short distance away, dotted across the fields, are another three. The 20th windmill was demolished many years ago. The mills are all owned by the foundation, which was created by a number of different local and regional authorities. Most of them are lived in, one of them by Wisse himself.

Miller Cock van den Berg has been living and working in Kinderdijk for 20 years. He agrees with Wisse that it's a special sort of community.

“We all share the same passion. When the wind picks up, we begin to feel the itch. Quite often, we will start up the mill in the evening for a little while, just because we enjoy it so much.”

Overdue maintenance
When Kinderdijk was placed on the Unesco list, it meant that some long overdue maintenance had to be taken care of quite quickly. But even with revenue from Kinderdijk's 400,000 annual tourists (about a third pay an entry fee for the museum mill and a video presentation), subsidies were still needed to cover the costs.

And the costs were substantial: the windmill known as ‘leaning Nederwaard 5’ would require close to one million euros alone, and the necessary subsidies were not secured until very recently.

Arie Hoek is the current miller and tenant of Nederwaard 5.

“The mill has been in our family since 1747. Jacob Hoek was the first of a total of seven generations of Hoeks who have lived there. It became available in 1989, and I have been operating it ever since.”

59 centimetres
The mill looks a little forlorn right now: no cap and no sail arms. Mill builder Ad Wisse explains that there is still a lot of work to be done.

“One side needed to be raised 59 centimetres. It is still slightly off-kilter, but it’s no longer a problem. The mill kept sinking and we needed to stop that. It also needed to be set straight so we can make it operational again.”

Only now that the mill has been set straight can the real restoration begin. The thatch cap is nearly finished, and has been placed on scaffolding next to the mill. However, the most difficult job will be the restoration of the underground channels and pumping mechanism which all has to be reconnected.

Big wish
Once the restoration is finished, Arie Hoek will hopefully be able to move in. He is currently living in a house some distance away in the village.

“I work with computers all week, so the mill is sort of a liberation, a safety valve. The mill has never made us rich, but has enabled us to keep our heads above water for centuries. Literally and figuratively.”

However, even when the last mill has been restored to its erstwhile glory, the work will not be finished. It never is when it comes to windmills. And if it were up to Cock van de Berg, Kinderdijk would see yet another major project.

“We would go for the 20th mill. We want it back. Yes, that is a big wish of ours.”

(gsh/ae)