Huksbeker Watermolen

In the garden wall of the Paltehuis museum in Oldenzaal, a gable stone from a watermill that? 125 meters southeast of the yard on the Gammelkerbeek. Translated into Dutch, the Latin text on this stone reads: 1589. After the fire consumed the mill in that year, the Council renewed it again in the year mentioned below, 1632, when counselors were Petrus Janssen Sr., Albert Helmich, Arnold ten Hoente, Gerard Tappe, Adolf a Limborch and Henric Poscamp, master of both rights. Keep us Lord Jesus in Your Dignity and Justice. The text is clear; the mill burnt down in 1589 and the council of Oldenzaal decided to have it rebuilt. The 43-year period between the burning down and the construction can be attributed to the appalling consequences for Twente, and in particular the area of Oldenzaal, which had to experience the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648). More than 20% of the Twente fields were unused. This is an average for the whole of Twente. This means that in the Oldenzaal jurisdiction the devastation has been much greater because of the strategic importance of the city of Oldenzaal. After all, between 1572 and 1626 there were six changes of power between the States and the Spanish. The consequences for the surrounding country are then easy to guess. The watermill was known under the name 'Hulsbeker Watermill'. This mill may have belonged to the Hulsbeek yard. Due to the fact that the council of Oldenzaal is having the mill rebuilt in 1632, we can conclude that the mill is already in the possession of the city of Oldenzaal. We also read that at the beginning of the 18th century the mill belonged to the General Poor State of Oldenzaal. The mill was privately owned between 1730 and 1749. During this period the then tenant, Lubbert Hulsbeek, seems to have managed the mill poorly. In 1749 the mill was bought back by the Poor State and soon after it was demolished. The house belonging to the mill that was inhabited by Lubbert Hulsbeek was also completely worn out by him. In the period April 1763 - February 1764 he built a new house. Both the old and the new house were referred to as the 'Hulsbeker Muldersplaats', nowadays still known as the 'olde Mulder', after all Lubbert was the old mulder at the time. A project was started in 2010 to make the remains of the watermill, which are still clearly visible in the stream bed, accessible to the public. In 2013, this project was carried out by means of a Cortent steel mill bridge over the brook and a mill circle with twelve Bentheimer stones, each referring to a mill from the rich mill history of Oldenzaal. In the autumn of 2013, the project was completed with the installation of a steel mill wheel with a diameter of 4 meters.