SUBJECTS of INTEREST
BILL EASTER
Wormerveer North
De Tijd
&
De Vlijt
A Short History
The magnificent procession of silos and factory buildings on the banks of the river at Wormerveer belies the history of a once extensive complex that started life as a modest oil mill in 1857. It was here that the long-established local family business Wessanen & Laan decided to build their first steam-powered mill, De Tijd, using much of the milling gear from windmill De Witte Bijl, it's direct predecessor. Initially the steam mill was not very profitable but better equipment was gradually installed which led to it soon outpacing it's wind-driven counterparts. The site began to expand with the addition of warehouses and, in 1861 the construction of flour mill De Vlijt. Despite serious fires in 1868 and 1898, the site was always rapidly rebuilt, often with bigger and better facilities. With business clearly flourishing the land behind the small dyke was drained and the Nieuwe Tijd was built in 1910, soon to be followed by the Nieuwe Vlijt and concrete silo Rusland in 1912. Notwithstanding yet another fire that same year, new warehouses were built and the site continued to expand with silos and processing facilities until WW2.
During the steady uptick in trade in the post-war years Wessanen & Laan became an early multinational with factories and export markets in many countries. New mills were added in 1948 and 1974, and new silos Amerika in 1964 and Europa in 1983. In 1975 the grand old De Tijd oil mill was officially closed down and, together with warehouse Voorzichtigheid and a large part of De Vlijt, demolished around 1990 just prior to the site being sold to MeNeBa (Meelfabrieken de Nederlandse Bakkerijen) in 1992. About two years later the new owners added a major new silo where De Tijd had formerly stood but nonetheless found themselves struggling against a declining market. Around 2000 the Nieuwe Tijd and its auxiliary buildings were demolished and the Vlasbloem warehouse followed soon after. Meneba finally ceased operations at Wormerveer in 2011 and the site remained dormant until it was sold in 2017 for re-development as housing. Some of the grander buildings will stay and be converted but this lovely, grimy, straggling monster on the banks of the Zaan will for me never look quite the same...
Today there is in fact only a part of the original De Vlijt building of 1898 remaining. De Tijd was demolished sometime around 1990 to make way for the last silo to be built here probably in 1994. I first saw the site in 1999 during an unplanned trip along the narrow dyke-top road on the other side of the Zaan when I took a quick shot with a 35mm camera. The site was still operational at that point and I surely wish now that I had taken a few more photographs at the time! I first planned to revisit the site in 2016 when, although officially shuttered by Meneba, it appeared to still be in use for the occasional milling job. Thereafter I returned for further visits in 2017 and 2021 to try to capture some of this extraordinary and historic site before it is redeveloped.
development of the site since 1857
Fascinated by the way the complex has grown and changed over the course of more than 160 years, I have attempted to make a simple animation and timeline to show this process. I have used publicly available online archive material including photographs and drawings to try to piece it all together. Due to limited information about some developments I have had to speculate about the likely sequence of events and this may well have led to inaccuracies. I would be grateful to hear from anyone who might be able to help with correcting mistakes or details I have missed. You can contact me at the address below (no spaces) In het Nederlands mag ook!
1857-98 Beginnings
1857 De Tijd steam-powered mill is built on the former site of the windmill De Witte Bijl
1858 Warehouses Voorzichtigheid, Vlasbloem and a further small one are added
1861 De Vlijt steam-powered mill and the Magazijn warehouse are built
1864 A small harbour and warehouse Koornaar are built
1868 A fire completely destroys De Vlijt
1869 A new De Vlijt is built
Uncertain De Tijd is extended and a new chimney added; the harbour is filled in, warehouses Muur and Magazijn 2 are added
1880 Warehouse Polen is probably built
1896-7 Warehouses La Plata are built
1898 Another, more serious fire: De Tijd, De Vlijt, Magazijn, Voorzichtigheid, Vlasbloem and La Plata are all destroyed although the chimneys survive
1898-1939 Growth
1898 A new De Tijd, De Vlijt and Voorzichtigheid are built
1900 New warehouse Vlasbloem is built
1902 De Vlijt is marginally extended
1905 De Vlijt is extended more substantially, warehouse Odessa and a loading tower are built
1906 Warehouse Vlasbloem is extended and outbuildings probably added
1910 Drainage ditches are re-routed; De Nieuwe Tijd and a small bakery are built
1912 The Nieuwe Vlijt mill and boilerhouse is built; silo Rusland and a grain polisher are added
1912 Yet another major fire: warehouses Magazijn 2, Muur, Polen, Koornaar and Odessa are lost
1912 A new Polen is built and the boilerhouse is extended
1916 A seed silo, engine room, extra boilerhouse and second grain polisher are built
1919 A coal conveyor and coal storage area are added
1919 The Nieuwe Tijd is extended and De Vlijt’s watertower is made taller
1920 An extra storey is added to De Tijd
1922 A workshop and several outbuildings are added
1928 The Nieuwe Tijd is extended with auxiliary buildings; the old chimney is demolished
1929 An automatic flour sacking plant is added
1937 Silo Korenaar is built, the bakery is demolished and a small lab is added
1945-80 Post War Boom
1948 Mill 3 is built and a pre-cleaning tower is added on the quayside
1952 De Vlijt is reduced in size to allow extension of the flour sacking plant
1953 A large new flour silo is built; area next to De Vlijt is roofed over; outbuilding updated
1957 Offices and transformer housings are added
1963 A drier is built between Rusland and Korenaar
1964 The vast new silo Amerika is built; the coal conveyor is dismantled
1969 An extra flour silo is built after part of the flour sacking plant is removed
1972 Some extra offices are added
1974 Mill 4 is built
1975 A staff building is added
1980-2020 Modern Times
1983 Silo Europa is built; an new silo atop the former boilerhouse and a parking area are added
1985 Most of Polen, the two grain polishers, silo Rusland and the seed silo are demolished; a storey seems to have been removed from warehouse Vlasbloem
1985 The open area is roofed over, loading bays in the River Zaan and for Europa are built
1990 Probably at this time De Tijd and Voorzichtigheid are demolished; De Vlijt is reduced in size
1994 A major new silo is built where De Tijd formerly stood
2000 Probably around now the Nieuwe Tijd and most of the outbuildings nearby are demolished
2003 Roughly around this time the Vlasbloem warehouse and outbuildings are demolished
2011 The site is shut down by the owner, Meneba
2020 The site is sold for redevelopment
De Ster
A short distance further north along the bank of the river is the derelict site of the former Brokking factory ‘De Ster’ (The Star).
I first caught site of the 'De Ster' animal feed factory whilst driving along the eastern bank of the River Zaan on a rather overcast day sometime in 1999. I took a 35mm slide shot of this gaunt sentinel at probably the furthest outpost of the River Zaan industrial area where it was surrounded by nothing much more than reedbeds and meadowland. Just a year later the complex was officially closed down by the owner, Brokking-De Heus, and it was abandoned for many years to the ravages of nature, the occasional metal thieves and some enterprising students from the Rietveld Art Academy.
I revisited the site when it was in this rather forlorn state twice in 2017 and, to my surprise and delight, was able to stroll around much of the complex and get lots of shots of its sad, fading glory. It struck me at the time what a tragic downfall this was for a once bustling and thriving factory, certainly when compared to the time of its optimistic launch back in 1930 when the original factory section was first built.
My original 35mm shot from 1999
1 here you can clearly see that the site was located in a remarkably rural area with the River Zaan on the left and watermeadows to the right. In the distance on the right the vast Meneba complex • 2 at left the large 1969 silo bearing the name of the then owners, Brokking. It abuts the 1956 concrete silo the ‘Groene Boer’ and jutting out toward us on the right is the first concrete silo added by Wessanen in 1954 • 3 on the left the 1954 silo which abuts the feed mill that was added at the same time. Peeping up at centre the top of the brick-built silo that was part of the original 1930 factory. On the right the later cladded silos with behind them the original factory building • 4 in the foreground here you can see the two pitched-roof workshops that Wessanen added in 1938 together with the flat-roofed pumphouse alongside. Behind the workshops the 1954 feed mill with its large window areas • 5 looking between the two modern silos towards the gloom of the extended storage sheds with on the left the pumphouse. Just visible at the back is the wall of the original factory • 6 the post-70’s cladded silo sits between the older pumphouse on the left and original factory on the right. At the top the airbridge containing the conveyor belt that leads to its fellow silo • 7 the dramatic weather occasionally added to the feeling of faded glory in this shot looking up between the two towering, algae-streaked silos • 8 view inside the storage shed extension with complex roof construction and weighbridge in the foreground; at right the wall of the main storage shed dating from 1950 • 9 a fuzzy shot of the main entrance with the rather sorry-looking cylindrical tank that stands in the former garden area. You can just about still make out the W E S of Wessanen’s name, ‘De Ster’ and ‘mengvoeders’ (mixed animal feeds) • 10 the sad remains of what used to be a rather grand garden-like area with the cladding silos looming in the background and the much later entrance lodge-cum-office at centre; on the right the extended storage sheds
De Ster shines again…?
Abandoned, the site fell steadily into decay until the first plans for re-development were published in 2015. This project envisaged the site being largely cleared and in 2018 the cranes moved in to demolish the silos to make way for a newbuild housing development. However, rather sympathetically, the bulk of the original 1930 brick-built ‘De Pijl’ factory has been left and this will be converted to apartments in the next phase.
On the left screenshots taken from Google Streetview which by sheer coincidence was obviously visiting during demolition. The large, characteristic tower silo is all but gone and the ‘Groene Boer’ is already half demolished. The original brick-built silo is clearly visible although sadly it did not survive... • on the right shots from my 2017 visit taken from broadly similar positions
History
The new factory, designed and constructed in 1930 by the J. Kakes company in Zaandam for local industrialist Maurits Pieper for the production of linseed cake and cattlefeed was, for its time, regarded as being quite advanced. The factory, named 'De Pijl' (The Arrow) was entirely brick-built and consisted of a riverside warehouse for the storage of goods in sacks with behind it a factory section and a silo with its own small harbour for the un/loading of bulk goods from and to barges. Later the company's offices were also located here and on the landside there was a rather grand garden-like area at the front that lent the site a distinguished air.
Sadly Pieper's business went into liquidation due to a downturn in livestock breeding and the entire site was bought by another local family concern Wessanen in 1938 who renamed it 'De Ster' (The Star) after its northerly 'Pole Star' location and added a couple of workshops and a pumphouse. After WW2 the economy inevitably began to pick up and, during the ensuing years, Wessanen gradually further expanded the plant adding extra factory and office space in 1946, storage sheds and another factory extension in 1950 and a new concrete silo in 1954 together with a feed mill. I think that probably around this time the rather characteristic small round tank was added in the grounds at the front which seems
to have served as a kind of billboard for Wessanen's products. In 1956 a further new concrete silo called 'De Groene Boer' was added which necessitated the truncation of the harbour and the addition of a small elevator tower to facilitate the transportation of bulk goods from barges. A further large concrete silo was added in 1969 which later became a well-known, albeit not particularly attractive, local landmark. Later still further additions were made although I am uncertain of the dates. This included the extension of the storage sheds and, probably towards the end of the 70's the addition of what I feel are two rather charmless cladded silos on the landside.
In 1990 Wessanen decided on a change of commercial direction and sold the entire complex to Brokking, a rival Dutch animal feed producer, who soon added their name to the large silo which, albeit somewhat washed out, was still visible when I was there in 2017. Brokking operated the plant successfully for another ten years but it was clear that the industry was changing and in 2000 they ceased operations at De Ster, leaving the buildings to their fate...
Using old photos and other sources I have attempted, with this simple, looping animation, to reconstruct the expansion of ‘De Ster’ from 1930 up to its demise in 2018.