Bakkerijmuseum Worfthoeve en Molen van t Veld

Bakkerijmuseum Worfthoeve en Molen van 't Veld is a small but atmospheric bakery museum located west of the village of Ten Aard, in the municipality of Geel in Belgium's Antwerp province. The site sits where the Worfthoeve farmhouse once stood, right next to the historic Molen van 't Veld windmill — and it's this pairing of two traditional crafts, milling and baking, that gives the place its distinctive character.

The story behind the museum

The museum was founded by Willy Goossens, a baker by trade and by passion, who spent years collecting objects connected to the baking profession. The result is a collection that shows what a baker's work looked like before the era of industrial bread production — from everyday tools to molds used for baking festive treats.

What is there to see?

The collection includes waffle irons, bread tokens (once used as a kind of voucher for bread), irons for baking communion wafers, and molds for ice, chocolate, marzipan, and speculaas — the spiced biscuits popular across the Low Countries. The old bakehouse still holds its original baking machinery, giving visitors a sense of what a working day looked like in such a bakery decades ago. A separate shed houses a collection of carts, the very vehicles once used to haul grain to the mill and bring flour back to the bakery — a vivid illustration of how closely the two crafts were once intertwined.

Since 2022, the site has also been home to the Geels Brouwerijmuseum (Geel Brewery Museum), so visitors can learn about the town's local brewing history during the same visit.

Molen van 't Veld — the windmill next door

Right beside the museum stands the Molen van 't Veld, a standerdmolen (post mill) dating back to 1796. After years of use and later restoration, it was formally reopened on 14 May 1993. Every Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m., volunteer millers set the mechanism in motion and demonstrate the traditional grain-grinding process to visitors — a chance to watch, firsthand, how grain becomes flour before it ever reaches a bakery.

Who is it for?

Bakkerijmuseum Worfthoeve en Molen van 't Veld is aimed primarily at visitors interested in local history, traditional crafts, and pre-industrial working life. It also makes for an engaging stop for families with children, who rarely get the chance to see a working windmill or genuine decades-old bakery tools in action. The combination of a bakery museum, a brewery museum, and a functioning mill means a single visit offers a look at several traditional crafts of the Kempen region at once.

Frequently asked questions

Where exactly is the museum located? West of the village of Ten Aard, in the municipality of Geel, in Belgium's Antwerp province, directly next to the Molen van 't Veld windmill.

Who founded the museum? Willy Goossens, a baker by trade, who assembled a collection dedicated to traditional bakery craftsmanship.

Can visitors see the windmill in operation? Yes — every Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m., volunteer millers demonstrate the grain-grinding process at the 1796 Molen van 't Veld.

What else is on site? Since 2022, the Geels Brouwerijmuseum, dedicated to the town's brewing history, has also operated on the same grounds.