Sammerspolder pumping station, Egmond ad Hoef by Mike Bing

About "Sammerspolder pumping station, Egmond ad Hoef"

by Mike Bing

About the artwork

The countryside in North Holland is full of these kinds of small automated pumping stations that keep the many polders dry and pump the water from the ditches to a higher canal. You see them a lot especially in the bulb fields around Egmond, Castricum and Heemskerk.

The Vennewaterspolder, Polder het Maalwater, Oosterzijpolder, Zuurvenspolder, Bergermeerpolder, Damlanderpolder, Sammerspolder, Visscherijmolenpolder, Philisteinsche Polder, Polder Boekelermeer, Sluispolder, Bosmolenpolder are some examples.

Occasionally there is some maintenance but the grab arms automatically spring into action when the pump grid threatens to become full of branches and leaves.

In this case, the shot was taken with an infrared camera which slightly distorts the colours but highlights the beautiful Dutch cloudscapes and allows them to play a leading role.

The Sammerspolder roughly covers the area in the triangle formed by the Heilooër Zeeweg, the Hoeverweg (N512) and the Maalwater in Heiloo.

Before this pumping station, on this spot there was, how could it be otherwise, a mill on Zomerdijkje. The scoop wheel mill stood opposite the southern tip of the Maalwaterpolder, on the Egmondervaart, on which it drained its water. That canal lies in common with Schermerboezem.

On 1 September 1644, the former owners of more than 30 ha in the Sammerspolder, Mr Cornelis Sammer c.s., agreed with the Egmondermeer that the latter would henceforth drain these 30 ha. This continued until at least the early twentieth century

This pumping station was commissioned in 1949.