Ootmarsum, Tubbergen, Albergen

Everywhere in Twente you can find historical farms and homesteads. Since the Middle Ages, these farms were often grouped around fairly small arable land called ‘kampen’ or ‘essen’. You often still come across these words in place names.
Outside these arable plots were so-called ‘woeste gronden’, large moors, which were used in common. On these moors, the inhabitants of the farms would cut sods from the ground, which were used as fuel. In addition, the sods were also mixed with animal manure, allowing it to be spread well over the arable plots.

The wasteland was thus very important for the community and therefore, from the 13th century onwards, organisations of farmers were set up to regulate its management, the so-called ‘marken’. Incidentally, these existed not only in Twente, but in much of the eastern Netherlands. In total, there were once 402 marken, sixty of them in Twente. The boundaries of the various marken were marked with stones, and in many places these stones are still there.

The marken ensured that not too much and not too often sod was cut, so that the ploughed-off areas of heathland could recover well. Only the ‘valued erven’, the farmers who had established the marke, were allowed to cut sod. The population growth in the eighteenth century made it increasingly difficult to maintain this system, as people started building more and more houses on the existing farmyards. People also started building their own houses ‘illegally’ on the wasteland.

In the course of the 19th century, the market system proved untenable and people increasingly turned to reclaiming the wasteland to make it suitable for agriculture. This also became increasingly possible after the advent of artificial fertilisers, which reduced the need for sods and animal manure to make arable farming possible. This also led to more and more farms appearing on the former wasteland. These farms, built from the 19th onwards, can now also be called historic, but they are not among the historic farmsteads you will see on this route.

Incidentally, the ‘new construction’ of the 19th century often did affect the existing historic farms. Old timber-framed walls, typical of medieval construction, were often replaced by brick, which was sturdier and lasted longer. However, farmhouses so remodelled generally did not change in structure and architecture and are therefore still in use today. Although often no longer as a farm.


This Premium cycle route was compiled by our editor: Frans Glissenaar.