Deurne, Netherlands
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- See also: Deurne, Belgium.
| Deurne | |
 |
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| Country | Netherlands |
|---|---|
| Province | North Brabant |
| Area (2006) | |
| - Total | 118.37 km² (45.7 sq mi) |
| - Land | 117.10 km² (45.2 sq mi) |
| - Water | 1.27 km² (0.5 sq mi) |
| Population (1 January 2007) | |
| - Total | 31,856 |
| - Density | 272/km² (704.5/sq mi) |
| Source: CBS, Statline. | |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) |
| - Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) |
Contents |
[edit] History
Deurne (pronunciation ) is a rural municipality in the province of North Brabant in the South Eastern Netherlands. Including the villages of: Liessel, Vlierden, Neerkant, Helenaveen and Walsberg it has a population of almost 32.000 on an area of 118.02 km².
First recorded as DURNINUM (with thorns: Thorn / Thorne) in a deed of gift from the Frankish Lord Herelaef to bishop Willibrord in 721 Deurne remained a collection of subsistence farming hamlets stretching (North to South) along the PEEL peat moor until the 2nd half of the 19th century, when a newly built railroad and a canal enabled the commercial exploitation of the moor. Although the peat industry did not yield much of a profit in the era of coal powered industries, the cultivation of the newly cleared land, in the 1930's also by forced labour, gave a boost to agriculture, farming, and settlement alike. Today only tiny pieces of this former peat moor remain, some reflooded as mini wetlands, scattered along the fault line that once brought about its very existence.
[edit] Developments
In the first decade of the 21st century, Deurne has set its sights on becoming (yet another ?) rural small town, building industrial estates, offices, a local cultural centre (theatre) and shopping precinct in Deurne village. In the surrounding rural area of greater Deurne, existing crop farming and intensive pig / cattle / poultry farming is tentatively being joined with energy efficient hothouse vegetable production. Various manufacturing industries can be found on industrial estates along the railway (West - East), canal (North - South) and major roads.
[edit] Sights
Nevertheless it is still possible to catch a glimpse of times gone by, here and there. In Deurne village: 2 castles (1 ruin) in the HAAGEIND (HEDGE END), St. Willibrord's main church (R.C.) (15th ct, with the van Doerne, lord of the manor, family vault), the little protestant church donated by Louis Napoleon in 1815, and the town hall (1895 financed with peat production), by the village square. And further afield some old farmsteads and a pittoresque corn windmill in the village of Vlierden, and a surprisingely green kind of polder landscape in Helenaveen (former peat moor settlements) and Griendtsveen (municipality) of Horst in the province of Limburg. Ye olde world of Deurne was first photographed in the 1890's.
[edit] External links
- Deurne, Netherlands is at coordinates Coordinates:
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