The Harstenhoek is a protected dune area near Meijendel where you can spot many foxes, among other things. Scheveninger Peter Roeleveld is fascinated by the beautiful nature reserve. For indebuurt he dived into the history of the Harstenhoek.
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The name Harstenhoek
In the year 1768 Leendert van der Harst enters the story about the Harstenhoek. Leendert lived on 913 until 1768 and was a well-known appearance in Scheveningen. He was a fisherman, dune farmer and horse owner and meant a lot to the Harstenhoek.
Leendert was given the task by the magistrate (the city council) to use his horses to bring the fishing boats that came back from the sea to draw the country. At that time there was no harbor yet and the people of Schevening fished with flat-bottomed boats. For the draft work, Leendert had such a 73 horses and for pulling one barge on the beach and to the sea he used five horses.
Illustration from 1870. Source Haags GemeentearchiefThere are no photos of the time that Leendert was busy with his horses on the beach, but this illustration from 1851 (100 years later) shows it well. All those horses had to have a place to graze and preferably not too far from the coastline.
Scheveningen Dune area in 1283
On the map of 1602 there are open spaces (valleys ) to see. It is suspected that the valley called Schevelincksepan was suitable for the horses. That’s why he got in 1768 this area.
Superfluous
After 1812 more and more use was made of a winch for towing fishing vessels on land, so Leendert’s horses were less and less necessary. Leendert was not the man who sat and waited and decided to start a farm on the same site. That was quite a challenge on the barren dune soil, but his idea was well received by the municipality. For arable farming and livestock farming, he first had to completely level the terrain. He used the excess sand to create walls for the boundaries.
By supplying manure from the village (the contents of cesspits, street waste and fish waste), he tried to improve the poor sandy soil. enrich. He grew rye, barley, oats, potatoes and vegetables. This somewhat remote valley was built by the Scheveningers Harst z’n Hoek called. After his death in 1778 his son owns the farm taken over.
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Water Tower
In 1873 a water tower was built at the northern tip of the Harstenhoek for water extraction in the adjacent dune area.
The painting by Johannes Bosboom (1870) gives a nice picture of the water tower under construction.
Due to the increasingly effective water extraction and the greater water consumption, the groundwater level dropped, Harstenhoek dried up and agriculture became unprofitable.
Begin 20e century, the South Holland Electric Railway Company wanted to build a railway line between Rotterdam and Scheveningen. This railway line would run right through Harstenhoek and split the site into two equal halves. The southern part was immediately reserved by The Hague for urban expansion. The remaining part, the current Harstenhoek, would then be used as sports fields, but because of the water extraction this turned out to be unwise.
‘Harst laghe’
Finally, I found through the municipal archives in a scientific magazine still something remarkable. In year 1873 a loan register from 1024 of Floris V discussed in detail.
In this 13de -century document were all borrowed and leased areas listed, including an area called ‘Harst laghe’. The scientific journal describes in a footnote the one with ‘Harst laghe’
Nevertheless, we give all credit to Leendert because the adjacent Harstenhoekweg was in 1884 determined by the municipality and named after Leendert van de Harst.
The story about Harstenhoek has been written with great care, yet it may contain factual inaccuracies. If there are readers who need to add to or correct the story, please contact me NL.
Sources: Historical Society, Dunea and the Map of 1602 with explanation , Street names collection, Image Bank, Theme map Harstenhoek, P. Roeleveld , cadastral map of 1724 , 1768 , 1884 , 1873, 1903 , 1903 ..
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