Fort, vesting en -onderdelen, Betonnen werken bij het werk aan de Bakkerskil

English translation

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Description

Cluster 84.

NEW HOLLAND WATERLINE

Introduction

STEAM PUMPING STATION WITH SLUICE GATES AND DAM LOCK as waterworks dating from the early 20th century and built in part for the New Holland Waterline. The pumping station and associated works are located at the sluiced drainage outlet of three creeks or waterways at Nieuwendijk. The sluices in the creeks gave the steam pumping station its name. The defence system of the New Holland Waterline was primarily based on the controlled inundation of (large) areas of land. By means of an ingenious system of sluices, culverts, dams, retaining walls, dike coupures, and so forth, the necessary water level could be set and maintained quickly and within narrow limits. This partly made use of existing civil water management structures. Sometimes the works were (substantially) adapted to military requirements. A limited part of the works was built specially for the New Holland Waterline and sometimes special account was taken of this.

The pumping station De Drie Sluizen was built partly over the mouths of the waterways and was equipped with three separate pumping installations. In the event of inundation, the waterways had to be closed off separately and the polders regulated separately, for which special provisions were made in the outlets. The pumping station was designed by the engineering office P. Bongaerts in The Hague and came into being in 1902 / 1903. It was converted to an electric pumping station in 1934, after which the chimney, which stood to the left behind the building, was demolished in 1941.

The pumping station had water inlets on three sides, each equipped with a lifting device to pump out excess water from the individual waterways. The installations have since been removed and the windows on the front of the pumping station have been modernised, but the building, the associated waterworks and the spatial ensemble, including the inlets and the outlet basin, are still largely intact. However, the sluice that formed the closure of the basin no longer exists.

The function has been discontinued and the property has been in use as a residence with business premises since 1985. Some small roof dormers have disappeared, an entrance under an arch on the right in the right long facade of the main volume has been changed into an arched window, while the entrance has been moved to the left bay of the adjacent extension.

In the immediate vicinity of the pumping station there arose a coal store, a large Nissen hut (both demolished), a workshop / smithy and a block of three service dwellings, which in connection with the pumping station are of particular ensemble significance.

Description

STEAM PUMPING STATION WITH SLUICE GATES AND DAM LOCK at the sluiced drainage outlet of three creeks or waterways at Nieuwendijk, which due to the exceptional combination of a threefold lifting installation housed within one building and the combined civil and military functions possesses great rarity value. The former steam pumping station, built on a not entirely symmetrical, T-shaped ground plan of approximately 17 x 9 and 14 x 12 m, is executed in brick, with an ochre-coloured band running round on two levels, and is covered by saddle roofs tiled with red tiles and with overhang.

The main facade (long facade) of the main volume is parallel with the Rijksweg and is separated from it by the outlet basin. This facade rises from the outlet basin and comprises five bays marked by pilasters, of which the second and the fourth are provided with arched windows, with panes divided in four under a semicircular fanlight. Centrally the name of the pumping station: 'De Drie Sluizen'. A walkway with iron railings along the main facade and traces of the former outlets and remains of a sluice gate. The end facades, with a stepped ascending frieze accompanied by corbels, provided with three (right) and two (left) windows comparable to those in the main facade and in the gable walls three round windows, of which two sets of two (slightly smaller) with Star of David motif. The left facade provided with brick and railing-fitted platforms, giving access to the operating mechanisms of doors and sluices. The right facade borders on a comparable but broader platform, on which the access from the Rijksweg also connects. Both platforms connect to retaining walls with railings positioned at an angle to the main facade. The left one contains two sluices.

The long facades of the extension standing perpendicular to the main volume comprise five bays with arched windows or entrances with green-painted double wooden doors and separated by pilasters. The rear facade is three bays wide, separated by pilasters, and has in each bay three arched windows with iron glazing bars and in the gable wall a stone with the building year "Anno 1902". Here too a stepped ascending frieze accompanied by corbels. The main volume comprises a basement, the ground floor and an attic with two levels. The extension, the former boiler house, has no intermediate floor.

There are various SLUICE GATES and a DAM LOCK beneath or against the pumping station. Highly unusual is the fact that four facades of the pumping station contain inlets or outlets (of which only those in the main facade are now closed). The waterways (Alm, Gantel and the Hulpgat) could be pumped out separately thanks to the separate inlets, while by means of the sluice gates and the dam lock (to the left of the pumping station) the water levels in the individual polders could also be regulated. At the base of both platforms beside the side facades of the main volume there are four inlets for water to be pumped out; in both cases on the left a straight closed inlet and to the right of this an arched masonry example. These inlets are / were closeable by means of (stop) beams or a sluice. Just as with the inlets on the right side, there is also a considerably broader platform behind the extension under which a double inlet has been built. The inlets on the right and rear are executed as culverts with heads and steeply sloping wing walls. On the main facade the traces of the former outlets of the pumps are clearly recognisable, along which the pumped water was brought into the outlet basin. The holes of the round pipes are sealed with brick.

When the water level inside was high, the waterways could also drain naturally. The sluices in the northern (left) retaining wall beside the main volume, the dam lock, contain two sluices with winches and heavy wooden doors for this purpose. When the external water level was high, these sluices had to be closed and water could only be discharged by pumping. Closure of the sluice gates and the dam lock was necessary to be able to establish sufficient inundation in the polders behind and the works together formed a relatively complex ensemble in this field. The combination of sluice gates and closeable inlets and outlets makes clear the special position of the works for the New Holland Waterline in this area; together with the dam lock further to the northeast at the Dijkje / the Doornsweg they played a role in the possible inundation of the polders above Nieuwendijk and Almkerk.

Valuation

The STEAM PUMPING STATION WITH SLUICE GATES AND DAM LOCK at the Rijksweg in Nieuwendijk is of general interest because of:

* Cultural-historical values as part of the New Holland Waterline as designed by C.R.T. Kraijenhoff and initially from 1815 realised by him, Jan Blanken and Major-engineer Willem Offerhaus and subsequently by others over approximately 125 years strengthened and improved.

* Architectural-historical values, in particular as an expression of construction related to military-strategic building practices, which is based on the system of inundation and access defence.

This is an expression of historical waterworks related to military-strategic building practices, in the form of a pumping station with associated water-retaining elements.

* Ensemble value and situational values as part of the New Holland Waterline. Also because of the functional and physical connection with the other components of the complex, as well as with the nearby workshop / smithy and the service dwellings.

* The component is preserved reasonably intact because the main form, the architectural detailing and adaptation to the functions of water-retaining structures and dam lock remain clearly recognisable.

* The component is representative (characteristic) because it clearly shows the former function of a complex sluice gate system for the New Holland Waterline and it represents rarity value as an ensemble of waterworks and as a (former) triple-acting pumping station.