Texel drainage sluice

Laying of the foundation stone

When the groundwork for the lock was completed in 1875, the contractor invited the polder board to a festive celebration. The story goes that the group traveled by tent wagon to the management hut in the Oost, a neighbourhood Oosterend on Texel. They had a drink there and then took a small steamboat to the lock construction site. Dike reeve Simon Keijser then waded through the mud in high rubber boots. He climbed onto a large block of bluestone and addressed those present. He took the opportunity to announce that everything was going according to plan, butthat the costs were higher than expected. As a result, the polder board unfortunately had to increase the charges by 5 guilders per hectare. 

After his speech, he laid the first stone with a trowel, after which the secretary, S.Pzn. Keijser, and the mayor, D.C. Loman, also symbolically laid a first stone to avoid any hard feelings between them.

Polder The North

When the salt marsh area was reclaimed to create the Het Noorden polder in 1875-1876, the necessary agreements were made with the neighboring polders of Waal and Burg, Eierland, and De Eendracht. The excess water from the three polders converged in Het Noorden polder and had to be discharged into the sea. This required a sluice in the sea dike to drain the water from the three polders at low tide. 

Initially, it did not seem necessary to build a large polder mill. However, by 1878, the new polder had become too marshy, so a mill was built to pump away the excess water. The first stone was laid on August 12, 1878, and it cost 31,090 guilders. The first miller was G. Dekker Fzn from Wieringerwaard, who received 150 guilders as a miller's wage. That was good pay, because a miller in the Schermer earned around 100 guilders a year at that time. He was also allowed to build a small house or barn and keep a goat or sheep. In 1913, an auxiliary pumping station was built next to the mill. In 1965, the mill was taken out of service.

The lock has three lock gates that can slide vertically, one for each inlet channel. The structure is made of brick with bluestone reinforcements at the corners. Above the middle gate is a bluestone plaque commemorating the laying of the first stone by the dike reeve. The three supply channels could be closed or opened, also by means of vertically sliding wooden doors.

Out of service

When Rijkswaterstaat raised the dikes on Texel to Delta height in 1979/1980, the lock was closed and the section on the Wadden Sea side was removed. Half a kilometre , the Krassekeet pumping station was built. A new drainage channel was created through the dike. Presumably, the brick walls on the land side of the old lock were then raised with a concrete layer. When the Hollands Noorderkwartier Water Board worked on the Wadden Sea dike around 2019/2020 as part of the HWBP, no further maintenance work was carried out on the lock.

Restoration of lock

The monumental lock had been neglected for many years by 2024. This was understandable, as it had not been in use for almost 50 years. The joints and brickwork were in very poor condition, the ironwork was rusted, and the natural stone also needed repair. In 2024-2025, the overdue maintenance was tackled. To do justice to the authenticity of this national monument, the intervention was kept to a minimum, under the motto: as much as necessary and as little as possible. 

Extra

• Anyone walking thethird stage of the Rondje Texel from De Cocksdorp to Oudeschild will pass the drainage sluice (Wandelnet).
• The bike routealong bird-friendly fields passes by the lock (Bike Network).
• Poldermolen Het Noorden is owned by Natuurmonumenten and is sometimes open to the public.