The Lakes: medieval peat extraction, weekend stays and an unwanted guest

When you walk through the Lakes here, it is hard to imagine that in the Middle Ages this was a deserted and wet area where peat was cut. Today there are weekend residences here, neatly grouped around the fishing ponds. It is a very large area that is not only limited to Begijnendijk but extends on the territory of Tremelo. The local fishing club certainly doesn't have to gasp for air. According to wedstrijdvissers.be's website, 2.7 tonnes of fish were caught here in one day on 4 July 2020. It is quiet except for the barking dogs. Behind every fence you pass, there's a vicious guy who defends his boss's territory.

In the excise book from around 1368 we find possibly the oldest mention of the place name De Meren. The name De Meren comes etymologically from the word 'moeren', which means peat bogs or places where peat can be cut. Around 1300, peat extraction was at its peak. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, 'settlers' came here to cultivate the common heathland: they came to reclaim new property, hence the name 'Nieuwgoed', first mentioned in 1409. Over the years, important peat lands came into the possession of monasteries or prominent families. For example, in 1258 Duke Henry III of Brabant donated a nut of about 10 hectares to the monastery of Vrouwenpark in Wezemaal. The monastery of Gempe in Sint-Joris-Winge and the noble families Van Wezemaal and Van Aarschot must also have come into possession of large peat fields around that time.

A complex drainage network was constructed for its operation, a large part of which still exists today. Peat extraction must have been at its peak around 1300, but by the middle of the fifteenth century the reserves were almost completely exhausted. The last major peat extraction was probably in the west of the Lakes. There was a very thick layer of peat in the old bed of the Kalsterloop, more difficult to reach because of its low location in a valley. In order to be able to exploit it, a new waterway was dug at some distance from the old riverbed: the current Merenloop. At the end of the fifteenth century, almost the entire common heath of Begijnendijk appears to have been converted into private plots. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, a large part of Begijnendijk was reforested.

The plague of muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) that raged in Flanders for decades is said to have originated in Begijnendijk. In the 1920s, Mr. Daels founded a fur farm in the Begijnendijkse Meren. The rats that were bred for this purpose were muskrats. By the way, the fur came on the market under the fancier name "bisam". The animals were housed within a fenced area: the 'rat house'. As early as 1930, the licenses of Belgian breeders were revoked and the farms were closed. Escaped and feral animals from the open breeding farm of Begijnendijk are said to be at the origin of the swarming of the animal in Flanders. Initially, these animals spread mainly in a northerly direction from Flanders and to the Netherlands. From about 1950 onwards, the hearth spread to the west and south of the country. In 1952, the muskrat had already spread over an area of ± 6,400 km2 in Belgium.

Jan Rymenams