When in 1625 a group of wealthy merchants decided to reclaim the lake the Heerhugowaard, they experienced resistance from other landowners who used the lake for water storage. They took it to court and they reached an agreement.

Fourteen extra windmills were needed to drain the water from the system (boezem) that the lake was a part of, the Raaksmaatboezem. They would pump the water to another higher level system, the Schermerboezem which in its turn drained in the sea.

Twelve mills were being paid for by the reclaimers of the Heerhugowaard, two were paid for by the landowners of the Geestmerambacht who used the Raaksmaatboezem.

Six mills close to Alkmaar, four close to Rustenburg and four to the east of Oudorp.They were called 'strijkmolens' as they only pumped about 0,4 meters up. ('Strijken' is to shave something off.) The two windmills that stood most south were called de Geestmerambachtmolens.

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They stood there and pumped for more than three hundred years until in 1941 all the different waterlevels were leveled and they were no longer useful. Three were dismantled and only one remained. Since than it is called the Ambachtsmolen.

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