Willows and water

From peat extraction to recreation and lakes: 
In the eighteenth and nineteenth century people started digging the ground in many places near Gouda. The excavated soil was dried and thus the fuel peat was created, which was mainly used in the potteries and beer breweries of nearby Gouda. The drastic excavation of the soil resulted in the creation of a large lake area: these Reeuwijkse Plassen.

Until the eleventh century, this area near Gouda consisted almost entirely of swamp and forest. Only in the course of the twelfth century did the area become inhabited, when farmers from Holland and Utrecht began to develop the land. The farmers wanted to use the land for arable farming and livestock farming. Initially, the land was mainly used for arable farming, but the peat soil collapsed. As a result, the land was too wet for arable farming and they switched to livestock farming. The farmers who settled in the area formed small residential areas near a church, bridge and along the long polder roads.... till the end of the 19th C life was just rural here.

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