Today on my morning bicycle ride, I passed this windmill called De Rooie Wip (The Red Wip). As the name suggests, the ‘Rooie Wip’ is a type of windmill called a “wipmolen,” which is derived from the “standerdmolen,” the oldest windmill type in our country.
For the origin of the name “wipmolen,” two explanations are given:
- The shaking of the mill when the mill blades rotate rapidly is known as “wippen.” Both the head and the tail (which is used to position the mill in the wind) shake/wobble when this type of mill is in operation.
- The scoop wheel “lifts” (‘wips’) the water, so to speak, from the polder into the higher-lying waterway.
The Rooie Wip was completed and operational in October 1639 and, like most windmills of that type, was used for drainage purposes rather than milling grain. It continued to drain water from the Gemenewegse polder until the end of 1956, a whopping 317 years!
The mill discharged its water into the Oude Rijn via the Lodewijksvaart. In January 1957, a new electric pumping station was put into operation, rendering the ‘Rooie Wip’ obsolete as a pumping mill. Three years later, the mill, along with the former miller’s residence, was sold to Mrs. Aaltje Pool from The Hague for 7,500 guilders. Her responsibility was to ensure that the mill remained operational so that the ‘Rooie Wip’ could function as an auxiliary pumping station until the end of 1976. In case of emergencies or when the modern pumping station was out of service, the ‘Rooie Wip’ was still used for polder drainage.
Afterward, the mill came into the hands of other private owners. One of them demolished the old miller’s residence to build a modern house in the same location. The last private owner could no longer afford the maintenance and sold the mill in 1992 for the symbolic amount of 1 guilder to a foundation established specifically for this mill.
After a restoration in 1994/1995 to make it operational again, the ‘Rooie Wip’ can once more move water in a closed circuit using the enlarged scoop wheel from 1894.
Due to its beautiful location, the ‘Rooie Wip’ remains a prominent monument and one of the most photographed mills in the Netherlands.
Picture taken today May 28, 2023 | Gemeneweg 22, Hazerswoude
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