History revealed in a forgotten lock

I'm a bit stymied this week because I've lost some photos I need for my blog post. I was going to tell you about a bit of local waterways history, but I can only effectively do half of it now. Let's see how I get on.

A couple of weeks ago, Koos and I were looking at Google Earth to find a weekend mooring one of our neighbours told us about and which we're interested in trying out with the Vereeniging. It's not far from Oudenbosch and is apparently a lovely quiet spot.

The screenshot below shows the Dintel (bottom left) with a little boat at the mooring. It appeals to us because there's a small bridge to the land, which you might be able to see if you enlarge the photo. However, although that's what we were initially on the satellite view to find, we were even more interested to see the small waterway leading from it to what is clearly a lock called the Keenesluis (Keene Lock).

The Verlamde Vaart (formerly the Barlake to Keenehaven) is virtually closed off to the Dintel these days, but it was an operating waterway in the past and the discovery of the lock immediately grabbed us.

"Shall we go and have a look at it?" I asked Koos. Ever eager to investigate waterways' history, Koos didn't hesitate.

"Yes, let's. I'll see how we get there by road," a trip that turned out to be quite a bit more circuitous than going by boat.

The zoomed-in screenshot above gives a better view of the lock, which we approached from the south eastern side of the Barlaaksedijk. It turned out to be a pretty drive around the edge of the village of Standdaarbuiten. I know. What a name! It's apparently derived from a phrase meaning 'beyond the border pole' but was often corrupted to 'Sand on the outside'. Here's a Wikipedia link to the village. It has a bit of WWII history attached to it, which you might also find interesting. And here's a photo of the village I found on Flickr by one Johan Bakker.

Anyway, on we drove around the lanes until we came to the spot where we knew the lock could be found.

Originally, in the 18th century, it was a stop lock to control tidal waters from the Dintel, which at that time was open to the sea. There's an interesting article about it here, but it's quite difficult to imagine how it was in those days. Unfortunately, although the lock's been restored, it isn't as it was originally when it had two sets of flood gates and two for the ebb. However, it's probably still used to control water levels because it now has new gates (see below). The original lock width appears to have been reduced.

We walked all around and over it to see where the old stonework was revealed.

And when we crossed the bridge over the lock gate, we could clearly see the old archway under which boats would have had to pass when entering or leaving the lock. The article I've linked confirms the Keene was used to transport agricultural goods before the lock was built, although for how long afterwards, they don't say. Whatever the case, the Keene's mouth to the Dintel became so silted up it could no longer be used.

What I found especially interesting was looking at the old map of the waterways in the vicinity. There were so many inlets and other navigable waterways before the area was dammed and drained it's virtually unrecognisable. Still, if you click on the image and peer at it closely, you can just make out Oudenbosch (Dorp van Oudenbosch) and Standdaarbuiten (Sandt ter Buijten) from the old lettering.

Then (I'm not sure when)
The blue marks the outline of the land as well as showing
the waterways. See how many inlets there were


And now—more land than water. Most of the inlets have
gone and the rivers are now disciplined

So that was our fun, as it often is: pouring over maps or Google Earth, going to see what we've found and then scouring the internet for the history and information about it all.  

In fact, I think I've run out of room to tell you about the park that was a harbour this time, so I can go and take more photos before next week's blog. Problem solved!

To finish up, here are a couple of photos of the spring dandelions in the meadows around us and some regulation blossom.

Have a good week, allemaal, and enjoy the April sunshine if you're here in the north. For those in southern climes, I wish you all a most wonderful golden autumn.