Paper presented in Leuven at the symposium "History and Forest Biodiversity", Janaury 13 - 15, 2003.
The woods and forests in the Kempen region have a long history. As a historical geographer I want to draw your attention to the remainders of pre-Medieval forests, the remaining coppices and the hedges of the Middle Ages and later; and for the respective periods of re-afforestation in post-Medieval times.
1. The woodland landscape at the beginning of the medieval reclamation
According to the pedologist Van Oosten (1) very loamy soils in the region Northeast of Antwerp were never covered by heather for long periods of time. They were probably woodland until their reclamation. It is possible that these woods were a moderately nourished variant of the oak-beech wood, which had the capacity to recover after disturbances, so that the heather got few possibilities to flourish. Moreover, the moist woodland soils were the first to be reclaimed and so could not develop into heathlands like most other sandy soils. Riezebos en Slotboom (2) conclude that the ongoing moistening of the terrain during the Atlantic and Subboreal (Neolithicum and Bronze Age) transformed the woodlands into a more open type, a "park landscape" as they call it. This was due to peat growth further away and climate changes. It is in this landscape that the medieval reclamations started.
2. Relicts of the old woods in place names
The medieval reclamations were not accommodating towards woods. Grazing and cutting down trees led to the virtual disappearance of the woods. At first, the damage seems to have been rather restricted, but during the 13th century, the Great Reclamations and even direct woodcutting concessions speed up the deforestation. However, the former woodlands left their marks in the names of settlements. Of the 614 settlement names that probably existed around 1350 in my research area, 90 names were of a woodland-type: 15%. In my inventory of settlement names (3) there are 50 names with the element -lo indicating a coppice on higher sandy soil. 15 of them are village names. In 10 of them the name gives an indication of the presence of trees or shrubs: birch (berk), furze (gaspeldoorn), hornbeam (haagbeuk), holly (hulst), lime (linde), poplar (populier), winter oak (wintereik), osier-willow (teenwilg), elder (vlier); or animals: eagle (arend), deer (hert), raven (raaf), snipe (snip).
3. Woodland remainders around 1300 and later.
Only near 18 villages (out of 80), a ¾ mostly small ¾ piece of woodland remained up to that moment. In the following centuries most of them disappeared, some as late as the 18th century. Of the old medieval woodlands only five still exist: the Chaambos (Northwest of Chaam), Liesbos (West of Breda), Ulvenhoutse Bos (South of Breda), Grotenhout (Southwest of Turnhout), Hoodonk (South of Westmalle). Most of these woods are officially protected.
According to Van Oosten (4) the wood name of the village of Wouw (Woude = wood, Wald) referred especially to the moist en wide brook valleys where the soil still contains some peat. These brook valleys must have had a cover of alder. On the basis of the still remaining woodland flora around 1970 Van Oosten concluded that before the reclamation Wouw must have been covered with one or more types of the relatively heavy nutritious oak - hornbeam wood or of the alder - ash wood. These wood types fit well with the very loamy soils of Wouw.
The five remaining medieval woodlands all stand on a wet loamy soil, and are drained by a number of small brooks. Presumably, these wet soils were not attractive for reclamation. On such soils trees recover easily after damage by animals or cutting. The importance of loamy soils is also clear from the existence of "green commons" and "grey commons". The first are common lands with grass, shrubs, trees and some small woods on loamy soils, in the 14th century called silva et campo; the second are common lands with heather and dunes on quite coarse sands, in the 14th century called thimum. The difference was already clear 700 years ago.
4. A landscape of hedges and open fields. Remains today.
Apart from a few more or less closed woods, the cultivated part of the landscape of the Kempen was rich in hedges with between them small coppices. The hedges had a complex function for the farmers as demarcation of properties, as fence for grazing beasts or incoming wild animals. They produced a lot of kindling that was used for fuel, for making of tan for tanning (bark) and for fodder (leaves). The coppices mostly produced the same kind of wood for the farmers. Hedges stood around the reclamations of the Late Middle Ages and later. On the maps of the 18th and 19th century, the oldest reclamations have the character of open fields with only a hedge around the outside. Therefore, the hedges could be quite old, up to five or even seven centuries.
However, many of the hedges have disappeared during the 20th century. The introduction of
took all functions away from the hedges. They were no longer kept in good order and were later on removed. (5) Remaining hedges and coppices changed character from often-cut undergrowth to high growing trees. In some places very old "stools" can be found. Rövekamp and Maes (6) tried to date them by their diameter, but this is prone to large errors. (7) Nevertheless, old stools can be interesting from the historical-geographical point of view. An example: medieval parcel boundaries dotted with big stools still run from North to South through the sand dunes of Drunen. This indicates that these dunes are younger than the since long abandoned medieval reclamation of that region.
In my landscape inventories made for the reallotment programs I always point to the "permanent coppices": coppices that are shown on maps dating around 1775, 1840, 1900 and that are still existing. Often many small coppices remain. (8) I always hope that the reallotment-people will check them: are they really old and interesting? Or are they now completely "new" coppices without history. The first category should be protected. But as far as I know the check is never done and protection is not achieved.
5. 16th c. New woods: Wouwse Plantage 1504; Mastbos 1515; Annabos 1550 - the introduction of Pinus
From 1500 on new woods were created by the regional lords of Breda and Bergen op Zoom. In 1504, the lord of Bergen op Zoom started a new plantation in the heathlands and former peatlands about 7 kilometre Southeast of the town of Bergen op Zoom, between the villages of Wouw and Huijbergen. It is not clear if this was a success. From 1541 onward further work was done on a plantation of 76 hectare. There were three foresters and a farm. Lanes were planted and rondpoints created. On one of these a graceful fountain was build. From the names of the wood parcels and the selling of wood we know that in the later 16th century chestnut, oak, alder, and willow were present. By then the plantation covered 221 hectare (about 500 acres). (9)
The Mastbos was sown in with Pinus silvestris from 1515 on, on heathlands some 2 kilometres South of the town of Breda. The name "Mastbos" means: wood with trees like ship masts. The Sint Annabos was laid out between 1551 and 1564 on heathlands 6 kilometres Southeast of Breda. It is not clear if they worked to a systematic plan or lay out. The 1621 map of the Mastbos does not show traces of such a plan but both new woods had a central path and a farm for the forester. The 1621 map shows 59 hectare with big trees in a wood of 140 hectare. The core of the St. Annabos only measured 32 hectare. Both woods were later expanded as was the old wood of the Liesbos 5 kilometre to the West of Breda. From 1620 on, new lanes and more or less square wood parcels were created and the woods were connected to the town by new straight, wide lanes.
The creation of the Mastbos stands for
the introduction of Pinus silvestris into the Low Countries. In 1514 Hans
Scaller from Nuremberg advised the lord of Breda on the possibilities of
sowing Pinus. Three places were visited at Breda, Roosendaal and Gilze.
In 1515 Scaller brought the seeds with him. Raphael de Walen in Frankfurt
supplied the seeds.
(10) Scaller sowed them
near the farm of the Breda lord at Hulten in Gilze and on the heathlands
south of Breda. During 17 days a plough was used for his activities. We
do not now if he first ploughed the soil and then sowed, or first sowed
and then ploughed the seed into the soil. Also in 1516 Scaller came to
Breda for the sowing of more lands. Around 1500 Nuremberg was an important
centre of Pinus plantations and many Pinus seeds were exported from there.
(11)
6. Renewed afforestation since 1750. Introduction of Canadian Poplar.
A second period of afforestation began around 1750, not only in the present Belgium but also in North-Brabant. Again the regional lords, but also smaller landowners, planted new woods. Planting resumed at the older woods and new woods were created. Already in 1750 de lord of Hoogstraten started the planting of the hunting park of De Hees. Sixteen lanes around a central rondpoint ran through the 600 hectares of new woodland. A hunting lodge was erected in 1757. In 1755 a Pinus wood was created directly East of the town of Bergen op Zoom. In 1758 a new wood followed South of Roosendaal and in 1773 a wood East of that place. The plantation between Wouw and Huijbergen was expanded from 1759 on according to a plan made up by the surveyor Adan, covering 373 hectare. In 1783 further expansion followed and slowly a wood zone formed South of Bergen op Zoom. (12) This was a mixed wood. (13) The Mastbos near Breda got an enormous expansion with the acquisition of neighbouring heathlands in 1788. This became a Pinus forest with the exemption of a peaty area that became a training ground and shooting range for soldiers. In 1819 the Sint Annabos measured 83 hectare. New lanes were laid out here and in the neighbouring old Ulvenhoutse Bos from 1758 onward. The farm burnt down in the 18th century and was not rebuild. In the woods near Breda the management aimed at a regular crop of kindling and timber while at the same time the woods had a function as a hunting ground for the princes of Orange as lords of Breda. (14)
The penetration of the 18th c. renewal movement of the Enlightenment into the higher circles ended the acceptance of the seemingly God-given barren landscape of the heathlands of the sandy Kempen district. In circles of owners of big estates ideas were exchanged about ways to bring the so-called "vague and useless" lands into culture. In 1773 in what is now Belgium a decree was issued by Maria Theresia, ordering the afforestation of the heathlands. This official step fits in well with the general development of the ideas. So, although Maria Theresia had no official say north of the border, we see there the same development as south of it. The small world of intellectual people is an international one, so borders did not matter in this case.
Already from 1744 on agricultural experiments were carried out in Zundert, halfway between Breda and Antwerp. They lasted only as long as the owner could pay for the imported dung. On the estate of Valkenberg 9 kilometres Southeast of Breda a model farm was created from 1770 onward. Part of this was for the planting of freshly imported Canadian poplar trees next to beeches, oaks, ashes and birches. This is, with Utrecht and the Land of Waas in Belgium one of the points of introduction of this tree into the Low Countries. (15) Later typical Poplar landscapes developed in the Waasland and in the region South of Bois-le-Duc. Both regions became big exporters of wooden shoes or clogs, made of Poplar wood. Now the clogs are no longer in general use and the Poplar landscapes are thinning fast.
7. Afforestation during the 19th c. : towards a dominance of Pinus.
After 1800 the afforestation of the heathlands went on as the common rights on the heathlands came in the hands of the municipalities that sold the heathlands to big investors from the cities. Also the domains of the princes of Orange, now kings of the Netherlands, sold a big part of their heathlands. The buyers perhaps hoped to bring these fields into agricultural use, but without the import of dung from outside the region that was not possible. So many woods were created. At first deciduous woods as well as pinewoods were introduced, but in the second half of the century the pine woods became omnipresent. The pine timber could be exported to the coalmines in the south of Belgium.
8. 20th c. Reclamation of recent woods and heathlands. Natural closing of heathlands by trees.
Although artificial fertilisers became available from 1870 on, their price was still too high to make wide spread use possible. (16) Only after 1900 spread use of artificial fertiliser made it possible to reclaim the remaining heathlands for agricultural uses. Even the re-reclamation of 19th c. woods became possible. So the creation of new woods slowed down and became restricted to the most difficult soils. New coalmines were opened in Belgian and Dutch Limburg. This kept the emphasis on Pine-growing until in the second half of the 20th c most of the mines closed down. Rising environmental and nature awareness under wide strata of the urban population (and village people with an urban range of ideas) stopped the reclamation movement around 1970. Since the late 19th century remaining heathlands that escaped reclamation into field or woods were no longer grazed. During the 20th c large parts of it transformed slowly into natural woodlands.
9. Conclusion
1. Oosten, M.F. van. Sterk lemige dekzandgronden in westelijk Noord-Brabant. Boor en spade 17 (1971) 39 - 53, esp:. 42.
2. Riezebos, P.A., R.T.Slotboom. Some data on the holocene deposits in the Mark and Weerijs valleys (prov. of Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands). Geologie en Mijnbouw 49 (1970) 119 - 135; page 130.
3. Buiks, C.J.M. en K.A.H.W.Leenders. Nederzettingsnamen in het gebied tussen Antwerpen, Turnhout, Geertruidenberg en Willemstad. Den Haag, 1994. (6 delen). (1994a)
4. Oosten, M.F. van. Invloed van de bodemgesteldheid en de waterhuishouding op het agrarische landschap rondom Wouw. Wageningen, 1975, 83, 86.
5. Leenders, K.A.H.W.. Een totale landschappelijke omslag. IN: Eerenbeemt, H.F.J.M. van den (red.). Geschiedenis van Noord-Brabant, Deel II, Emancipatie en industrialisering 1890 - 1945. Amsterdam/Meppel, 1996, blz. 100 - 107. [ISBN 90-5352-218-2 geb.]
6. Maes, N.C.M., C.J.A. Rövekamp, R.W.A. van Loon. Inventarisatie van autochtone bomen en struiken in West- en Midden-Brabant. Tilburg (Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuurbeheer en Visserij, Dienst Landinrichting en Beheer Landbouwgronden Noord-Brabant), 1996. (Opgesteld in opdracht van de Dienst LBL Noord-Brabant en de Stichting het Noord-Brabants Landschap, 101 p).
7. Leenders, K.A.H.W.. Ook oude bomen in Noord-Brabant. Noordbrabants Historisch Nieuwsblad 16 (2002) nr.1, 10 - 14.
8. Leenders, K.A.H.W. Cultuurhistorisch overzicht van het landinrichtingsgebied De Hilver (gemeenten Hilvarenbeek en Oisterwijk). Den Haag, 2002. (eigen uitgave, 2 delen)
9. Ham, W.A. van. De Wouwse Plantage voor 1795. In: Sinte Gertrudis in het woud. Wouw, 1976.
10. Gemeentearchief Breda, Collectie Havermans nr. 514 f 93 - 97.
11. Sporhan-Krempel, L., W. von Stromer. "Die Nadelholzsaat in den Nürnberger Reichswäldern zwischen 1469 und 1600." Altnürnberger Landschaft, Mitteilungen 18 (1969) 3 - 33.
12. Valk, J.L.R. de. Bossen op de Zoom. Een verkennende studie naar de bebossing van de westrand van Noord-Brabant van circa 1750 tot heden. Doct.scriptie UvA, Amsterdam, 1994.
14. Leenders, K.A.H.W.. Het landgoederenlandschap rond Breda. Jaarboek de Oranjeboom 52 (1999) 1 - 63..
16. Leenders, K.A.H.W.. Naar de climax van het gesloten landschap. IN: Eerenbeemt, H.F.J.M. van den (red.). Geschiedenis van Noord-Brabant, Deel I, Traditie en modernisering 1796 - 1890. Amsterdam/Meppel, 1996, blz. 142 - 151. (1996a) [ISBN 90-5352-217-4 geb.] Crijns, A.H., F.W.J.Kriellaars. Het gemengde landbouwbedrijf op de zandgronden in Noord-Brabant 1800 - 1885. Tilburg, 1987 (Bijdragen LXXII).