Sawmill De Held Jozua

The Hero Joshua
Zaandam-Westzijderveld, North HollandImage
The Hero Joshua in Zaandam-Westzijderveld
About The Hero Joshua
Mill 'De Held Jozua' is a paltrok sawmill built in or shortly before 1719. The mill is located in the Westzijderveld, 300 m. northwest of the Zaandam railway station. The mill with accompanying wood sheds and water features gives a good impression of a windwood sawing company, as it looked in earlier times. There are not many details about the history of this mill. It is known that the wind letter was dated July 25, 1719 and issued to Hendrik Claasz. the farmer. As a remarkable thing it can be mentioned that this beam sawer was included in an insurance contract on June 10, 1728, with the owner 'Gerardus van Aelst, preacher in the Reformed church in Westsaendam'. Perhaps this explains the biblical naming of the mill, usually simply referred to as 'The Hero'. After all, Joshua was a leader of the Joo . mentioned in the Old Testament

Jewish people. As successor to Moses, he brought this people to the Promised Land of Canain, where he won many victories as a warrior. In the autumn of 1946, when the mill was owned by the Gebr. De Boer, the mechanical sawmill built near the mill was completed and the windmill was decommissioned not long after. Gradually the mill got more and more in a deplorable state. A few years ago, the complex was renovated and the outbuildings now house a restaurant.< In the Zaan region as a whole, no fewer than 367 sawmills have stood, making them by far the most important among industrial mills. Of these 367 sawmills, 109 were octagonal scaffold mills and 237 pawl mills