De Mars, De Blesse
Encyclopedia
De Mars is a smock mill in De Blesse
De Blesse
De Blesse is a small village in Weststellingwerf in the province Friesland of the Netherlands and has around 800 citizens . The windmill De Mars was rebuilt in 1997....

, Friesland
Friesland
Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...

, 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...

 which was built in 1997 on the base of an earlier mill. The mill is listed as a Rijksmonument
Rijksmonument
A rijksmonument is a National Heritage Site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.-History and criteria:...

, number 527616.

History

An unnamed smock mill was built here in 1834. It drove two pairs of 1.4 metre diameter millstone
Millstone
Millstones or mill stones are used in windmills and watermills, including tide mills, for grinding wheat or other grains.The type of stone most suitable for making millstones is a siliceous rock called burrstone , an open-textured, porous but tough, fine-grained sandstone, or a silicified,...

s. The mill was probably built for Philips Schlecht. As built, it was a "grondzeiler", lacking the brick base it later stood on. The base was built in the late nineteenth century. An electric motor
Electric motor
An electric motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.Most electric motors operate through the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors to generate force...

 was used as auxiliary power from 1919. A sailstock broke c1925. The mill machinery was dismantled c1927. The mill was demolished c1958, leaving the base standing.

In 1985, the mill was bought by Mr Mars, who decided to restore the mill back to working order. The drainage mill De Zwarte Haan, which stood by De Bildtse Polder, was purchased and dismantled in April 1997. In November 1997 the mill was re-erected at De Blesse. In June 1999, a new cap was placed on the mill. This had previously been on a mill at Neustadtgödens-Wedelfeld, 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...

. The brake wheel from the windmill Olle Widde, Ten Post, Groningen
Groningen (province)
Groningen [] is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. In the east it borders the German state of Niedersachsen , in the south Drenthe, in the west Friesland and in the north the Wadden Sea...

 was incorporated into the rebuild. The mill was officially opened on 8 September 2000 and named De Mars.

Description

De Mars is what the Dutch describe as a "stellingmolen". It is a three storey smock mill on a three storey base. The stage is at third floor level, 5.85 metre above ground level. The smock and cap are thatched. The mill is winded by tailpole and winch. The four Common sails, which have a span of 18.2 metre, are carried in a cast iron windshaft which was cast by Gieterij Hardinxveld in 1998. The mill drives a single pair of 1.3 metre diameter millstones.
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