News

Progress visitor center

Some more pictures of the progress of our new visitor center. The painter has finished his work and the result is impressive, we are very happy with it!

Progress visitor centre

The visitor center makes good progress. Most of the construction work is finished and at this moment the painter is at work.

Jaarverslag 2020

As already shown on this website, a lot has happened around De Ster and De Lelie in 2020. The corona pandemic, the start of the construction of the visitor center, new spice tins, new volunteers, miller's exams, etc. All this can be read again in the annual report.

Visitor center is progressing

The new building next to the De Ster windmill is gradually taking shape. A visitor center is being built on behalf of NV Stadsherstel and together with Stichting Molens aan de Kralingse Plas. The new center consists of a small hall, a workshop for the mill volunteers, a kitchen, toilets and other facilities. After completion, it is the intention that groups of visitors can be received in the center for an introductory presentation about the mills. That includes school classes. The visitor center is located on the Kralingse Plas and is connected to the De Ster windmill. A traditional architectural style has been chosen that matches De Ster. The center will also be rented out for small-scale meetings.

Redesign interior of De Ster

During the construction activities, the foundation of the De Ster windmill was also restored.

The interior of the mill is being partly refurbished. On the side, where the current entrance remains, will be the renovated mill shop. Mill products are sold there, including our well-known spices. In addition, on the street side, there will be a small mill museum. There will be a permanent exhibition about the history of the De Ster and De Lelie mills, but also about the production of spices and snuff. The redesign of the interior of De Ster will be carried out in authentic style as much as possible. Over the past two years, the Stichting Molens aan de Kralingse Plas has raised funds for the extension and restoration of De Ster. Many funds have now helped us! A significant part of the costs have been covered by this, but we are not there yet.

Donations and gifts on NL95RABO0133818248 are therefore very welcome, also for the further development of our mills!

Reparing the walls

From the outside it looks like the contractor's Christmas vacation has already begun, but it certainly hasn't! Inside, a lot of work is being done to renovate the walls of the old building. The walls are from 1866 and you can see that a bit. The loose plaster has been removed and where necessary the walls have been reinforced and plastered again. Under the plaster layer, the location of the fireplace emerged from the time when the outbuilding was inhabited. There were two houses and apparently both had a chimney against the dividing wall. In the old winter photo, the chimney in the middle of the roof is clearly visible.

Foundation floor

On Friday, the foundation floor for the visitor center was poured together with the foundation floor in the outbuilding next to De Ster. Another step further!

Foundation works

The foundation beams were poured last week. The beams nicely indicate the outline of the new visitor center. A work floor has also been created in the annex next to De Ster. The foundation floor that will support the walls will soon be placed on this floor. Another step further!

First pile-drive

Today the first pile was driven for our visitor center and the foundation repair of the outbuilding at De Ster. This official act was performed by Niels van der Vlist, director of Stadsherstel Historisch Rotterdam, and Abel Scholtens, chairman of the Molens Foundation on the Kralingse Plas. Due to the measures in force, the ceremony was very simple. Despite the lack of sun, it was still a great moment and an important step!

Barn demolition

The construction of the visitor center and the foundation repair of the outbuilding next to De Ster will soon begin! Yesterday we demolished the old barn that stood where the new visitor center is to be built. An important first step!

The barn was built around 1969, at the same time as De Ster was rebuilt after the fire of 1962. The barn was used by miller Van Harreweijen as a garage and shed. Over the years, the shed continued to sag and flooded regularly. As a result the situation deteriorated and there was little else to do other than demolish the structure.

Clean-up and preparation

We are busy cleaning up preparation for the repair of the foundations of the outbuilding next to De Ster. We will take the opportunity to photograph the old documents neatly glued to the bulkhead. One of the documents is a poem from 1845 which was presented by the staff to the owners at the inauguration of De Ceres. The Ceres was the third mill of the Gebr. Hioolen and was a combined snuff and flour mill. With a blade length of 27 metres, the mill was considerably larger than De Ster and probably the largest snuff mill ever built.

Situation report

It has been quiet for a while, but that certainly does not mean that we have been sitting still. Consultations were held with the intended contractor, the architect and the builder about the further development of the design and determining the costs. We have now reached the point where we will soon be able to award the contract to the contractor.

In the mill we moved our spice shop to make way for foundation repair. The shop is now temporarily in the hairdresser's at the bottom of the mill itself. It looks a bit strange; the spice shop between the bales of tobacco and next to the vats where snuff can be made.

In addition, other items in the outbuilding must also be stored safely. Before we started cleaning up, we recorded the current situation with a photo report. The outbuilding was refurbished after the rebuilding of De Ster in 1970 and little has changed since then.

Probe and soil investigation

In preparation for the construction of the visitor center behind De Ster, we have today removed the bushes from the place where the visitor center will later be built. The lead slab and the plaster layer of the extension that stood there until 1968 is now clearly visible again.

Probe and soil investigation

Today, soil research was carried out at De Ster for the foundation repair of the outbuilding and for the new visitor center. The calculations and drawings can be worked out with the results. Another small step further!