Schalkwijk, Utrecht

Schalkwijk is a small village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It consists of a small village centre on the railway line between Utrecht and 's-Hertogenbosch and a 5 km long ribbon of farms along the small river Schalkwijksche Wetering.

The statistical district of Schalkwijk had a population of about 1650 in 2004.^[1]

History

According to the 19th century historian A.J. van der Aa,^[3] Schalkwijk was a heerlijkheid owned by the lords of Culemborg. In 1523, the dike of the Lek river at Schalwijk broke, and the village was severely damaged by the flooding.^[3]

When the current municipal system was introduced in the Netherlands in 1812, Schalkwijk and Tull en 't Waal merged to become a single municipality "Schalkwijk". In 1818, Tull en 't Waal became independent again, and Schalkwijk was a separate municipality until it merged with Houten on 1 January 1962.^[4]

The municipality "Schalkwijk" included the village of Schalkwijk itself and the surrounding former hamlets Rietveld, Blokhoven, and Pothuizen. Its area was 17.9 km². Most of the inhabitants were Roman Catholic, and went to church in the St. Michael's Church in the village centre.^[3]

When the railway line between Utrecht and 's-Hertogenbosch opened in 1868, a station was opened in Schalkwijk, but it is closed nowadays.^[5]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Statistics Netherlands (CBS), Gemeente Op Maat 2004: Houten [1].
2. ^ J. Kuyper, Gemeente Atlas van Nederland, 1865-1870, "Schalkwijk".
3. ^ ^{a b c} Abraham Jacob van der Aa, "Aardrijkskundig woordenboek der Nederlanden", vol. 10 (S), 1847.
4. ^ Ad van der Meer and Onno Boonstra, Repertorium van Nederlandse gemeenten, KNAW, 2006.
5. ^ http://www.stationsweb.nl/station.asp?station=schalkwijk
6. ^ W.A.G. Perks, Geschiedenis van de gemeentegrenzen in de provincie Utrecht van 1795 tot 1940 ("History of the municipal boundaries in the province Utrecht from 1795 to 1940"), Provinciale Almanak, 1962