Spoordonkse Watermolen, Oirschot

The Spoordonkse Watermolen is an underslap mill on the Beerze River in Spoordonk. The mill is in use as a catering facility and corn mill that can be visited.

The mill was mentioned as early as 1320, but it probably existed longer. It belonged to the former Castle Ten Bergh, which was located 100 meters south. Between 1649 and 1772, the mill gradually became independent of the castle lords.

In 1844 the mill was leased to the Van Esch family, who still own it. In 1868, the wooden mill was replaced by the present stone building. It then served as both an oil mill and a corn mill. In the middle of the building is the room with the wheels. The left part was the oil mill, the right part the corn mill. Today the former oil mill is occupied by the owner, who has restored the building and restored the corn mill so that grain can be milled on water power again.

On the mill is an advertisement for the defunct brand Wyers Oude Jenever. In the future, the current miller also wants to distill regional gin again.

The Spoordonkse Watermolen is the most western watermill in the Netherlands and the only one still existing on the Beerze. Other watermills were found in Bladel, Hapert, Casteren, Oostelbeers and Boxtel, but these have all disappeared.

The water of the Beerze River flowed directly through the covered intermediate section of the mill building until the 1960s. The new river bed was straightened to improve the water management of the area outside the mill. The water in the new bed is dammed up and flows over a fish ladder into the old bed. The old bed still flows through the mill, which is now a branch of the river here and flows back into the river further on. A concrete wall stands between the impounded water and the detour. The difference in water level before and after the Spoordonkse Watermolen is 2 meters.

The mill has two grinding couples driven by a track wheel. The spindles have a self-adjusting pivot. One grinding couple has 17der artificial stones and one couple has 17der blue stones.

The mill has two drag winches driven via a lute table on the king spindle.

The water wheel of the former oil mill is used for electricity generation and has a capacity of 2 kilowatts.

The water wheel of the corn mill is 5.44 meters in size and has 40 wooden blades with a width of 90 cm. The waterwheel at the former oil mill, dating from 2012, is 6.50 meters in size and also has 40 wooden blades, but with a width of 80 cm.

In the mill there are many old machines and objects, including and grinding chair, balance and weights rising to 50 kg.