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The brown gold: a reappraisal of medieval peat marshes in Northern Flanders (Belgium)

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Abstract

Although the importance of peat as energy supplier in the medieval and early modern North Sea Area is well known, the location, extent and nature of the peat-producing areas—peat marshes or mires—remains amongst the major problems in the landscape history of the coastal wetlands. This is especially true for areas like Northern Flanders, where peat marshes have since completely disappeared. This article reconsiders the ‘peat debate’ between geoscientists, who rely on ‘positive’ soil evidence, and historians, who accept ‘circumstantial’ historical data so as to reconstruct former peat marshes. Based on a systematic comparison of the arguments of both geoscientists and historians, we argue that recent methodological advances, such as integration of historical and geophysical data in a GIS, allow for bridging the gap between the two approaches and to reconcile contrasting opinions on historical peat marshes. This is tested in a case study for two villages—Moerbeke and Wachtebeke—in Northern Flanders, where re-evaluation of both geophysical features (soil, elevation models, hydrology) and archaeological and historical data (maps, documentary evidence on landed property and peat extraction and toponyms) leads to a completely new model for the presence of (Holocene) peat marshes.

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Notes

  1. Data derived from the financial household diary of Simon Borluut, 1451-1460: RAG, Borluut, 22, which will be shortly published by Marc Boone.

  2. RAG, Sint-Pietersabdij I, 10, f°61r.

  3. TAW = Tweede Algemene Waterpassing (or Second General Levelling), referring to the mean low water level at Ostend, about 2 m below mean sea level and about 2.3 m below the Dutch NAP.

  4. Soil augering P13 on soil map Bassevelde 25 W (1965), see De Muynck (1976), p. 82.

  5. The oldest is found on a mid-16th century map in SA, Topographical Collections, 12 # 11990, indicating the ‘Great Moorlands’ in the north of Moerbeke and the ‘Moorlands of Marquette’ in the north of Wachtebeke.

  6. For Moerbeke: RAG, Oud Gemeentearchief Moerbeke, 100-101; for Wachtebeke: Survey of 1662/1663, reworked by De Coninck and Martens (1989).

  7. For the Cistercian abbey of Boudelo (1741): RAG, Oud Gemeentearchief Moerbeke, 100–101; for the Norbertine abbey of Drongen (1738): RAG, Abdij van Drongen, 57; for the Benedictine abbey of Ghent St Bavo (1576): RAG, kaarten & plans, 458. The monastic property of the abbey of Boudelo around 1481 is estimated, based on RAG, Boudelo, 1327 and the remains of this property in 1741.

  8. Boudelo Abbey built its exploitation center at Koudenborn in the extreme east of the area. The manor of Drongen—Drongenhof—was situated close to the village center of Moerbeke. The abbey of Ninove also founded a manor on this central reclamation axis (Kalve) (Gottschalk 1984, p. 39). In contrast, the curtes of the Ghent abbeys of St Peter and St Bavo were situated on small sand ridges within the Moervaart depression itself, respectively south of Wachtebeke and south of Moerbeke (Wulfsdonk).

  9. Donation by count Ferrand and countess Jeanne of moorland to the abbey of Marquette in june 1228 ‘Ita longe quam idem morus noster extendidit’ (Vanhaeck 1940, I, no. 10, p. 8).

  10. Confirmation of a grant of moorland to the abbey of Boudelo in 1247: Asaert and Vleeschouwers (1976–1983, p. 244).

  11. RAB, Ninove Abbey, 136 and 832.

  12. RAG, Terhagen Abbey, 4.

  13. Part of the peat extraction by the abbey was ‘outsourced’ through a specific lease system, the so called moerpacht. Peat diggers bought the licence to dig a certain amount of peat for a fixed price. As exploitation costs were rather high (often more than 50% of the market price for peat), and a certain margin of profit for the peat digger must be included, we supposed that the lease price was half the market price. This allowed us to estimate the amount of peat that was dug through the moerpacht system. For the abbey of Saint Bavo this hypothesis is confirmed for some years for which both the sale price and the moerpacht per last are registered (Denys 1995, pp. 94–95).

  14. RAG, Boudelo, 1327.

  15. In 1738, Drongen Abbey owned 61.6 hectares of land in Moerbeke, but most likely not all of this was former moorland.

  16. When selling part of its peat production in 1448–1449, the abbey of Boudelo received 41 Flemish d. (denarii) groten per last for white peat; 40 to 54 d. for derdepit of a lesser quality and 98 d. for ‘puri derdepits et partim vierdepits’ (pure 3rd pit and 4th pit). To dig the peat, the abbey paid 17 to 18 d. for white peat; and 22 to 25 for 3rd and 4th pit (excluding transport): RAG, Abdij van Boudelo, 270 and 438.

  17. RAG, Sint-Pieterabdij II 1251/2, accounts 1472. Augustyn (1999, pp. 80–81) only mentions three to six last, but in the accounts up to 10 last per pit was found. The evidence cited by Augustyn that the pit would have measured one square roede or 14.85 m2 is not convincing. The size of a pit varied.

  18. RAG, Sint-Pietersabdij II, 1251/2 1472-1486: ‘item noch ghemaect uit eender roe moers 2 last ende 2 voer smackaerts’ (see also Augustyn 1999, p. 81, although with a different calculation).

  19. Deed of 1–21 March 1241 (n.s.): ‘vendidimus totam illam terram, que vulgo dicitur Onlende; que terra, sive onlende, tales habet terminus: verus orientem, Onlende abbatis et conventus de Bodelo; versus occidentem, allodium, sive Onlende, sancti Bavonis, quod vulgo dicitur Licht, et ultra aqueductum, qui Nortlede dicitur, Vevorde; versus septentrionem, morum, qui a loco, qui vulgo dicitur Calf, extenditur versus Bodelo; versus meridiem, terram domini Rassonis de Gavera, que se extendit versus Exarde’; Vleeschouwers 1990–1991, pp. 276–277).

Abbreviations

ARA:

Brussels, Algemeen Rijksarchief

RAG:

Ghent, Rijksarchief

RAB:

Beveren, Rijksarchief

SA:

Antwerp, City Archives

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Acknowledgments

Part of the research on which this article is based has been enabled by the University of Antwerp BOF-NOI project 3977 ‘Drowned but not Deserted’. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and Jeremy Schreiber for proofreading the English manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, University of Antwerp, Prinsstraat 13, 2000, Antwerp, Belgium

    Iason Jongepier & Tim Soens

  2. Department of History, Ghent University, Sint-Pieternieuwstraat 35, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Erik Thoen

  3. Department of Geography, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281, S8 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Veerle Van Eetvelde

  4. Department of Archaeology, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 35, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Philippe Crombé & Machteld Bats

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  1. Iason Jongepier
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Jongepier, I., Soens, T., Thoen, E. et al. The brown gold: a reappraisal of medieval peat marshes in Northern Flanders (Belgium). Water Hist 3, 73–93 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-011-0037-4

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