HISTORY OF THE WINDMILL

I don't think that there are many towns that can say they have a windmill in their main street. The windmill which is situated in Van Riebeeck Avenue, is built over The Bakery or 'De Bakkery'. The idea behind building the windmill was to bring attention to the Dutch bakery below.

It was built in 1996. The windmill or 'De Molen', was originally going to be a lot smaller but it ended up being a 3/4 size copy of the Zeldenrust Molen which is situated in the province of Groningen in the Northern part of Holland.

De Molen is built from wood imported from Malasia and took nine months to complete. It was officially opened in July 1996. There are photographs just above the entrance of De Molen that were taken during the contstruction of the windmill, and the owner of the De Molen, Mr Hans Ter Ellen, will gladly give you more information if you are interested.

The Bakery or 'De Bakkery' has been around for almost 40 years and will be celebrating it's 40th birthday on 5 July 2003

DE MOLEN Pannekoekenhuis
Tel: (011) 453 2222

DE BAKKERY
Tel: (011) 453 2233