11. Pumping station Palenstein - Zoetermeer

You cycle along the Slootweg. This used to be the original border between the villages of Zoeterwoude and Zegwaard. On the right-hand side of the road, the Buitenwegsche polder was created as early as the seventeenth century.

In 1759, a plan was made to fully extract peat from the polder, provide it with dikes and drain it. Three mills were built along the Slootweg and the Elleboogse Watering to drain the peat lakes that were created. After the work was completed in 1762, the polder was given a new name: the Palensteinsche polder, after the lost house of Palenstein in Zoetermeer.

Much has changed since then. The mills remained in use until the polder board decided in 1924 to switch to diesel-powered drainage. Just like the Zuidbuurt mill, the mills were truncated to a single layer. There is also little left of the original polder.

The landscape is now characterised by various lakes, such as the Noordhovense Plas, the Benthuizerplas and a part of the Zoetermeerse Plas. In addition, the city districts of Palenstein, Seghwaert and Noordhove were built in the polder. To manage drainage from Boskoop to Zoetermeer, two electric pumping stations were built: pumping station De Omringdijk near Boskoop and pumping station Palenstein, which you are now cycling past.