De Berk is a smock mill

Smock mill

The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind...

 in Barger-Compascuum

Barger-Compascuum

Barger-Compascuum is a town in the Dutch municipality of Emmen. It is in a peat-producing region of Drenthe. Workers in the area still carve peat from bogs daily. An amusement park in the area includes historical information and reenactments of life in the time when peat production was a more...

, in Drenthe

Drenthe

Drenthe is a province of the Netherlands, located in the north-east of the country. The capital city is Assen. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and Germany to the east.-History:Drenthe, unlike many other parts of the Netherlands, has been a...

 province of the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. It was built in 1983.

History

De Berk was originally built c1850 at Drantum, Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. it was rebuilt after a fire in 1870. The mill was last worked commercially in 1952.. In 1979, the mill was brought to the Netherlands by miller H E A Bokkers, of Overijssel

Overijssel

Overijssel is a province of the Netherlands in the central eastern part of the country. The region has a NUTS classification of NL21. The province's name means "Lands across river IJssel". The capital city of Overijssel is Zwolle and the largest city is Enschede...

. The mill was erected in the Veenpark, Barger-Compascuum in 1983. It was erected near the site of a mill which had been demolished in 1936. As of summer 2009, the mill is not in full working order as repairs are required.

Description

De Berk is what the Dutch describe as an "achtkant stellingmolen", an eight sided smock mill with a stage. It is a two storey smock mill on a two storey brick base. The stage is at first floor level, it is 3.2 metre above ground level. The smock and cap are thatched. The four Common sails have a span of 21.5 metre. The wooden windshaft with a cast iron poll end carries a brake wheel which has 62 cogs. This drives the wallower at the top of the upright shaft. The wallower has 34 cogs. The great spur wheel, at the lower end of the upright shaft has 100 cogs. This drives the lantern pinion stone nut with 37 staves. The millstones are driven overdrift. They are 1.7 metre diameter.