2. The Old Parish of
Winterswijk
If you want to
know something about the Te Selles, then you must also understand the background
of the East-Achterhoek municipality of Winterswijk. Winterswijk is a border
municipality. It is surrounded on the north-west and the south-west by the
municipalities of Eibergen, Lichtenvoorde and Aalten and in the north-east and
south-east by the border with Germany.
In earlier times
Winterswijk, together with Aalten and Dinxperlo, was part of the Heerlijkheidor
het Ambt Bredevoort, named after the small fortified city with the same name.
(An "Ambachtsheerlijkheid" is the proprietary estate of a local Lord) This area
was for a long time the plaything of warring regional - and later - national and
international powers. After having been under strong Westfalian (and Bishopric
of Münster.) influence in the early Middle Ages, the Ambachtsheerlijkheid
Bredevoort came more and more under control of a regional dynasty, which had a
more western and southern base, namely the counts and dukes of Gelre. (Gelre is
an ancient name for Gelderland, now a province of the Netherlands)
The duchy of
Gelre in turn was pulverized in the 16th century in the titanic battle between
the Northern Netherlands and the Spanish Empire. After this battle Bredevoort
became, as a matter of law, a part of the Republic of the Seven United
Provinces. However, its separate status as an estate was maintained. As thanks
for proven services, the States of Gelderland granted Bredevoort in the
beginning of the 17th century to the House of Orange.
The
centuries-long special position as an estate, with its own legal,
administrative, and economic institutions, together with its geographic
isolation, has influenced in a very important way the social and political
development of the area. With the inception of the kingdom of the Netherlands at
the beginning of the 19th century, Bredevoort was dismantled. Dinxperlo, Aalten,
and Winterswijk attained the status of independent municipalities; there was no
longer a place for the once so illustrious little city of Bredevoort. It became
classified under the community of Aalten.
The present
community of Winterswijk measures almost 14,000 hectares (34,600 acres), and
with that surface area it is among the largest communities of the Netherlands.
In relation to its surface area the community is sparsely populated. In 1998
more than 28,500 people lived in Winterswijk, of which about 5,400 in the
countryside. Consequently we are dealing with an area that is strongly
influenced by agriculture. In fact, almost 10% of the working population still
makes its living in agriculture. (The whole of the Netherlands is less then 5%.)
In spite of its
agricultural bias, Winterswijk itself is a thriving village, even having some
urban features here and there. About 23,000 people live there. Some quarters
remind one of industry towns in Twente. That is not surprising. The growth of
Winterswijk from a small village to a regional center was created by the same
branch of industry that had previously given sleepy towns in Twente an
industrial focus: the textiles industry, with all the features that come with
it, such as a real "textile proletariat'. This gave Winterswijk the reputation
(not incorrectly), even in the more orthodox (Calvinistic) Aalten, of a "red"
village. The unfavourable tide for the textile industry also did not bypass
Winterswijk. Presently the textile industry has almost vanished completely.
In spite of
building up a new reputation as a regional center, it has not been easy to
attract replacement industries, primarily because of the economic recession of
the late sixties. In addition, the Achterhoek region is located somewhat outside
the mainstream of industrial activity. At one time there were two railroads from
Winterswijk, one to Borken and another to Bocholt. Both have been closed. Now
there is very little traffic and commercial activity passing through
Winterswijk, either from industrial areas of western Holland heading east toward
Germany, or vice versa. This lack of traffic makes it difficult to resurrect the
old ideal of Winterswijk as a commercial center for the German border region.
The village of
Winterswijk somehow gives the impression of a village that has left behind its
rural vitality and has become urbanized. The picturesque setting, which is an
identifying mark for other Achterhoek villages, was forced to disappear. But
this change stands in sharp contrast to the countryside surrounding it.
In this context
one can speak of the "two Winterswijks". A person leaving the village behind and
turning onto one of the many hardened or unhardened country roads perceives that
this countryside also differs from the countryside found elsewhere in the
Netherlands. Accustomed as one is to the right- angled, "industrialized" Dutch
countryside, here the visitor comes across a small scale, broken, uneven
landscape full of woods and dotted with characteristic farmsteads. Large-scale
agriculture has had little effect on the Winterswijk landscape, while at the
same time the mass tourism from surrounding Dutch cities also remains distinct
in 'het Gooi' (near Amsterdam) and at the 'Veluwe' (near Arnhem). The natural
variation and wrinkled character of the landscape has been influenced by the
special geological composition of the soil. Geological forces in the distant
past brought up earth strata in the region of Winterswijk, strata which remained
deep under the surface in other areas of the Netherlands. Consequently, there
are chalk formations which come to the surface close to the "Fökkink" farm,
providing opportunities for exploitation (the well-known "quarry") as well as an
excellent biotope for a multitude of species of plants. Elsewhere deep ravines
were formed through which flowed an extended system of brooks, creating the
geological conditions necessary for the forming of peat. Examples of this are
the "Wooldse Veen, the "Boerlose Veen", and the "Korenburger Veen". The
Winterswijk countryside is above all, however, a cultural landscape. It would
not look as it does without its human influence, an influence upon which its
appearance has accentuated the physiographic diversity.
The Winterswijk
rural population is scattered over 10 hamlets: Miste, Corle, Meddo, Ratum,
Huppel, Henxel, Kotten, Brinkheurne, Woold, and Dorpbuurt. Originally the
majority of the population lived in these villages.
About 1859 - the
beginning of the rise of the textile industry - more than 70% of the population
(5,477 people) lived in the countryside, compared to 30% (1,920 people) in the
villages. By 1930 the relation-ships were practically reversed: 61% (11,000
souls) lived already in the 'centrum' (= center) compared to 39% (7,000) in the
countryside. Since then the population of the countryside has hardly grown. In
1960 not even 8,000 "countrymen" were registered. The majority still earns
living in farming, as always.
For a long time
the hamlets were strongly independent communes, protected from the outside world
by an "oakwood curtain" formed by dense stands of oaks. If one compares the
hamlets with each other, one could discover small differences in the pattern of
the landscape, which correspond with old similarities in human inhabitation.
A distinction
can be made between two types of landscape: the old farmstead landscape and the
young reclamation landscape.
One might come
across the "old farmstead landscape" especially in Woold, Miste, Ratum, Huppel
and parts of Henxel and the Brinkheurne. In those areas the natural
circumstances were most favorable for practicing small but advanced agricultural
techniques. There a centuries-old interaction between human-kind and nature has
created the most characteristic Winterswijk landscape, characterized by
desiduous forest complexes in a varying pattern of 'kampen' (kamp = a piece of
ground fenced off with a ditch or a fence) situated on high grounds with narrow
brooks and valleys in the lower grounds and cleaved by winding small roads.
This is also the
land of the farmsteads of the "Scholten" (see chapter 4) and of the small tenant
farms covered with red roof tiles. The "young reclamation landscape" came into
being on parts of the earlier heather-and-peat areas, which partly were planted
with pine forests and partly were reclaimed as agricultural land.
This variation
of the landscape with meadows, fields, and forest complexes, creates a more
spacious, wide-open landscape.
It is no
coincidence that the "Scholten farmsteads" converge with the "old farmstead
landscape." While in other areas the increase in scale of agriculture caused an
increasingly uniform countryside, the powerful Winterswijk "Scholten" (landed
gentry) instead created and maintained a patchwork of farmland and forests,
based on their traditional belief that the possession of forests and wooded
areas was highly desirable. The implementation of this philosophy resulted in a
truly remarkable rural landscape.
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