Huis West-Einde
Breezand
The Anna Paulownapolder was drained in 1846. A lock and lever were built for the transport route from the North Holland Canal to the Molenvaart. Presumably a house for the lock and bridge keeper was also built. Archive documents show that in 1892 the orde
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The Anna Paulownapolder was drained in 1846. A lock and lever were built for the transport route from the North Holland Canal to the Molenvaart. Presumably a house for the lock and bridge keeper was also built.
Archival documents show that in 1892 the order was given for the construction of a stone house with a café by lock and bridge keeper J. Langedijk. The café was visited by ship's crew and passers-by. In 1968 the bascule bridge and lock were removed due to a reduction in shipping traffic. A road was built over the former lock.
Reclamation of the Anna Paulownapolder
In 1845/1846, the embankment of the Anna Paulownapolder area was started. The new land connects to the areas of Het Koegras, De Zijpe and Wieringerwaard. De Zijpe had already been drained in 1597 and the Wieringerwaardpolder dates from 1621. Het Koegras was embanked in 1817 with the Koegraszeedijk. This was related to the construction of the Noordhollandskanaal because the excavated soil was used for the construction of the dike. The construction of the Noordhollandskanaal provided a good new connection with the North Sea. The increasingly larger seagoing vessels would then have an alternative route for the virtually unnavigable shipping route across the Zuiderzee. This was constantly silting up.
House West End
The excavation of the Molenvaart was completed in 1852. In 1863, a lock with a bascule bridge was built. The connection between the Molenvaart and the canal was necessary because it was an important transport route for the flower bulbs. In 1892, J. Langedijk was employed as the lock and bridge keeper by the municipality of Anna Paulowna. Langedijk had a stone house with a café built on the canal side of the dike. This house was named Westeinde, after the western point of the polder. The café was visited by ship's crew, draught horse drivers and passers-by. In the years after 1920, truck drivers also became customers of the skippers' café. In 1946, Langedijk sold the house with café to J. Grin. He was appointed as a lock and bridge keeper in the service of the municipality of Anna Paulowna. Due to the reduction of shipping and the increase in truck transport, the municipal council decided in 1968 to remove the bascule bridge over the Molenvaart, close the lock and build a road over the former lock. In 1971, the house, of which the café part was no longer in use, was sold to C. van den Berg. This was officially the end of café West-Einde: a social meeting point for travellers and residents of the Anna Paulownapolder. Since 2018, the house has been restored and made energy-neutral by the current owner.
small ferry
As early as 1849, the board of the new polder decided that a ferry service from the polder to the Koegras was needed. The ferry was constructed on the west side of the Anna Paulownapolder. In 1908, Klaas Keuris became the 'ferry master' at the crossing over the North Holland Canal from the Anna Paulownapolder to the Koegraspolder. He came from Van Ewijcksluis and moved to the house near the ferry in August 1908 to start working as a ferryman from 1 September. The regulations stipulated that the ferry had to be operated from one hour before sunrise until 10 o'clock in the evening. But it often happened that Mr Keuris was called out of bed in the night by people on the other side to ferry them across. Around 1920, Mr Muntjewerf was ferry master.
Sources
150 years of Anna Paulowna polder by Jan. T. Bremer, March 1995 Magazine: De Clock van CallensOoghee, edition 1 June 1997 Magazine: Leven Verleden Den Helder, edition 1 September 2009 Drawing: CJ Dral Image bank Museum Oud Anna Paulowna Image bank North Holland Archives
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