Nederland - Oudorp, strijkmolens

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.