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Refuge on a terp 2.0. Waiting to be liberated

Writer's picture: Hans FaberHans Faber
pumping station Lely by Joh. H. van Mastenbroek

August 21, 1930, Wieringermeer in the province of Noord Holland. The reclamation of just another piece of the Zuiderzee ‘southern sea’ was completed. An wooded area, when it was still land, that was called Creilerwoud. Land lost to the sea eight centuries ago, during the most destructive All Saints’ Flood in the year 1170. The embanked land – or polder in the Dutch language – now being named Wieringermeerpolder, instead of Creilerwoud. A few years after the reclamation, settlers from all corners in the Netherlands moved to the new fertile land. But, it wasn’t for long these pioneers would keep their feet dry.


The first three villages founded in Wieringermeerpolder were Sluis I, Middenmeer and Wieringerwerf. These were all functional and unassuming names. The word sluis means 'sluice'. Later, the village of Sluis I was elegantly rebranded as Slootdorp, meaning 'ditch village'. A real improvement. The village name Middenmeer translates as 'middle lake'. Hence, in the middle of the lake. Wieringerwerf means ‘werf of Wieringen’, and werf means terp, which is an artificial settlement mound. Read our manual - Making a Terp in just 12 Steps to get a better picture of what these earthworks are. The element werf is similar as Warf(t), Wurt or værft used in northern Germany and southern Denmark, or as werve used in the southwest of the Netherlands, in particular the province of Zeeland.


 

The Wier of Wieringen - Wieringen as such is a former island at the convergence of the (former) Zuiderzee 'southern sea' and the Wadden Sea. It's early-medieval name was UUiron, Wironi or Wirensi. All originating from the Old Frisian word 'wîr' or 'wier' meaning 'raised mound' (Van Berkel & Samplonius 2018).Therefore, the name Wieringerwerf is a tautology, namely the Wier of Wieringen. Moreover, there are indications that Vikings have settled on the island of Wieringen. Especially, two silver hoards found on Wieringen point towards this.

 

Indeed, when in 1930 the Wieringermeerpolder and the settlement of Wieringerwerf were founded, a brand new terp was built too. A terp for just-in-case, so to speak, because the polder would be protected with a high dyke already. It's a fancy, four hectares big, square-shaped terp, including a top-notch sweet water well. This terp was the latest addition to the terp-building tradition that started around 600 BC on the salt marshes of the Wadden Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. A terp the Iron Age Frisians can suck on. Moreover, the engineers of this just-in-case terp 2.0 had great foresight indeed, as we'll see further below.



wieringerwerf terp
construction of the terp Wieringenwerf, 1927

On April 17, 1945 at 12:00 o’clock sharp, a desperate and frustrated German army out of anger blew up the dyke protecting the young Wieringermeerpolder. Most of the 7,000 pioneers of Wieringermeerpolder fled with their bikes, horses, carriages, carts, cattle, etc. away from Wieringermeerpolder, whilst the water was rising steadily to a level between 0,5 and 5 meters above the 15-years-old land. When the inhabitants of the polder reached the surrounding higher grounds and dykes, part of them were awaited by German soldiers. Some were taken prisoner, and one leader of the Resistance was shot on the spot.

 

Beemsterpolder – On February 21, 1945, the German army had ordered also the inundation of the Beemsterpolder already, south of the Wieringermeerpolder. At the end of May 1945, the polder had been drained again.

 

Not all fled. Three families from the village of Wieringerwerf, in total twenty-three people, went to the just-in-case terp that day. Including some children from the city of Amsterdam who had fled the capital a few months before during the so-called Hongerwinter 'hunger winter', also called the Famine of 1944-1945. Walking up the terp and hoping the rising water wouldn't go beyond the highest level of the terp. If it did, they would be trapped. But it did not. The engineers had done a proper job fifteen years back. On the terp everyone was protected. Not only from the rising water, but also from the raging Nazis and the chaotic final chords of the Second World War.

modern terp dwellers (April 17- May 7, 1945)

Besides people, also animals reached the terp for safety. There were six cows, a few pigs, a goat, a sheep and some rabbits. Also a cat and a dog. The owners of the sheep and the goat were unknown. In addition, several clever – or lucky – hares stayed on the terp as well, albeit without permission. Cows provided the people with milk. Some people lived in a tent. Others on boats docked on the terp‘s slope. No moles have been sighted, so these might have had a hard time surviving the inundation of the polder.

wieringerwerf
some of the animals at the terp (April 17-May 7, 1945)

Only three days after they had occupied the terp, the first of three storms hit the area. In a way these were welcome, since it provided the fresh terp dwellers with driftwood to build a shelter. Who knows, wood washed ashore collected by terp dwellers, is as it was many centuries ago, in a time when wood was scarce too on the tidal marshlands of the terp regions along the coast of the Wadden Sea. Anyway, after two more storms it was enough. The group left this safe haven on May 7, 1945. Heading for drier grounds of a country that had been liberated from its occupier in the meantime.


On December 11, 1945, the Wieringermeerpolder was made dry again, and life could resume its pace. Today, the polder has around 13,000 inhabitants.

For the folks living on the Hallig-islands in the region of Nordfriesland in northern Germany, the unique sight of people living on a terp surrounded by water, called Landunter, is still the daily normal. For the Dutch, it wasn't anymore. But, once again, the whole tragedy proved that after 2,600 years of terp culture, those raised settlement mounds are still a current and very solid solution in modern water management.


At the spot where the dyke of the Wieringermeerpolder was blown up by the German army, on the east side of the polder, is still a scar. A beautiful one, though. Here, the dyke makes a little semi-circular bend to the east into Lake IJsselmeer. Behind this curve on landside are two kolks, so-called wielen ‘wheels’ in the Dutch language, and Brack or Brake in the German language. These are small lakes created by the incoming, swirling water when the dyke broke in April 1945. The area around it, is forested. In contrast to much of the rest of the polder. Within this small forest, at the time of writing (2018), you have nature-camping Het Bos Roept ‘the woods call’. So, worth making a detour and stay the night there while hiking the Frisia Coast Trail.

 

Note 1 - If you became just as excited about terps as we are, and cannot wait to construct your own settlement mound, find here the first and only manual Making a Terp in 12 Steps. Take care, and read the warnings carefully!


Note 2 - Hiking the Frisia Coast Trail you'll pass the young terp of Wieringerwerf. The well has been replaced by a swimming pool, though. The swimming pool is slightly in decay.


Note 3 - If you understand the Dutch language, there's also a very informative documentary of the Wieringermeer catastrophe of 1945, click here.


Suggested music

Radiohead, High and Dry (1995)


Further reading

Berkel, van G. & Samplonius, K., Nederlandse plaatsnamen verklaard. Reeks Nederlandse plaatsnamen deel 12 (2018)

Guðmundsdóttir, L., Wood procurement in Norse Greenland (11th to 15th c. AD) (2021)


Oneindig Noord-Holland, De meidagen van 1940 (2012)

Regionaal Archief Alkmaar (website)

Rooijendijk, C., Waterwolven. Een geschiedenis van stormvloeden, dijkenbouwers en droogmakers (2009)

Zijper Museum (website)

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