Molen De Volksvriend | Gemert

When approaching the built-up area of Gemert from the direction of Beek en Donk via the Zuid-Om, the mill hidden behind the large compound feed factory is located along the road at the traffic circle with the Oudestraat. This mill is known to the people of Gemert as 'De Volksvriend'. Little has been published so far about the history of this mill. Hardly anything is even known about its pre-history - the present mill had a predecessor on the same site. The previous mill must have been called "De Ruyter." It was a wooden mill that burned to the ground about a hundred years ago, after which the present stone belt mill was built.

Mill "De Ruyter" In 1863, J. de Kinderen requested the municipality of Gemert to build a corn windmill on the Oudestraat in Gemert. Municipality and residents had no objections. In 1865/1866, De Kinderen had himself registered as a corn miller on a windmill. It can therefore be assumed that in 1865 the mill came into operation. This predecessor of De Volksvriend was a Zaanse octagonal tower mill. Each mill traditionally bore a name, and this mill bore the name "De Ruyter." The mill dated from the period when Admiral De Ruyter celebrated his greatest triumphs as a national naval hero. How long De Kinderen of Gemert remained miller at De Ruyter is also unknown. It is even questionable whether he ever operated the mill himself, as his name is nowhere found in Gemert's population registers. In any case, in the early 1880s of the 19th century a certain Willem van den Boomen turns up as miller and also as owner of the mill on the Oudestraat. In 1884, three years after his marriage and probably his move into the mill and mill house, he applied for a Hinderwet permit for the establishment of a steam corn and oil mill at the windmill on the Oudestraat. The mill caught fire in 1887. The newspaper reported the next day:

Gemert: Yesterday morning at 4 o'clock the wind, grain and bark mill of the miller W. Van den Boomen on the Oude Straat burned to the ground. Nothing was saved. It is learned that the mill is insured, but the contents are not, including more than 100 muds of rye, as well as the miller's cart with horse equipment etc. Cause unknown. 

On May 8, 1888, miller Van den Boomen received a permit for the erection of a new mill. A sturdy stone bell mill was erected. In addition to grinding grain, the mill would also grind dried bark from oak trees into run. This run was used as a tanning agent for hides. Gemert still had several tanners in the second half of the 19th century, for whom run was important. Van de Boomen responded to that need. Willem van de Boomen died in Gemert on 29-10-1912. He had no successor. The widow Van de Boomen seems to have continued the business with the help of miller's servants for some time, but in the spring of 1914 she moved to Deurne. Shortly before, the mill, steam grinding mill with boiler, warehouse and mill house were sold. Miller's son Hub van Roij, who until then still worked with his father at standard mill "Het Zoutvat" on the Molenakker, became the new miller of De Volksvriend.

Fifty years later, in January 1963, Hub van Roij and his wife Annemarie Gruijters celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Shortly before the wedding party, the windmill underwent another thorough restoration. In the newspaper and also in the miller's trade journal, the golden wedding couple and their son Adriaan van Roij, who had followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather as a miller, looked back on fifty years of grinding with the Volksvriend. When the miller couple Van Roij-Gruijters settled on the Oudestraat around 1913, there were seven windmills in operation in the municipality of Gemert. In 1963, De Volksvriend was still the only windmill in operation. Hub's father's mill on the Molenakker had been the first to disappear from the scene as a "competitor" after being demolished in 1917. Hub van Roij was known as a particularly skilled sharpener of millstones. Thus he maintained the millstones of mill De Peperbus in Molenstraat, of Sint Victor in De Mortel and even mills of relatives in Eerde and Zeeland. Because of his craftsmanship and his attachment to the old mill business, in 1963 De Volksvriend was still a mill in operation that had to be there. The sturdy windmill remained the pride of miller Van Roij. In a glowing speech to the golden Mulderecht couple in 1963, mayor de Bekker could still point out the power that the mill on the Oudestraat radiated. Everyone agreed.

In 1972 - the mill had not been in operation for several years by then - during a demonstration, one of the 27-meter-long blades dropped out of the mill cross and got stuck in the mill mountain. In 1985, the other blade was removed for safety reasons. Since then, our Volksvriend has been without arms.  Near the mill was an electric grinding mill, which represented the successor to the windmill business.

On January 22, 2014, the mill was transferred by Frenk van Roij to the municipality for a symbolic sum of 1.00 euros. And the Municipality of Gemert-Bakel gave it on long lease to mill foundation Gemert-Bakel , which took charge of the restoration. Preparations for the restoration began at the end of January 2014. Among other things, the head/cap was dismantled. As of January 2017, the mill is back in operation and restored to its old colors.