Vossenberg walk

"The mystery is sweeter than the explanation" (Father Ladislas) GPS recording of 23 May 2020

According to archaeologist Rica Annaert of the Flemish Institute for Immovable Heritage (V.I.O.E.), the secret of the Vossenberg is more complex than initially suspected. The hill will forever keep its secret. What happened in the past may never be traced. The hypothesis of a burial mound can be ruled out given the swampy subsoil. There would be a possible combination of three explanations.

In the first place there is the legend of the Norman Gelmel from the 9th and 10th centuries, a nice story that will certainly appeal to the locals! According to historical sources, the Normans caused a lot of destruction in the Kempen via the river system of the Scheldt, the Schijn, the Aa, the Mark, etc. A relationship between these devastations and the establishment of a fortification at Ginhoven is impossible to prove. From archaeological research in other parts of Flanders and the Netherlands, this option seems very premature.

A second possible explanation says that the Vossenberg was a castral motte: an artificially raised hill from the 11th or 12th century with the wooden residential tower of a local lord on it. At the foot of this upper court was usually also linked a neerhof, where daily life and economic activities took place. Both the upper court and the lower court were surrounded by a moat and demarcated with a fence of poles or stakes. Traces of a possible court are not known. Local toponyms such as Vossenberg, Wijthof (fenced court) and Staakheuvel can confirm this story, as well as old map material. On soil maps and on the copy of the Popp land register, a circular elevation is clearly recognizable in the alluvial (caused by silting) area of the Mark: the Vossenberg.

Ground drilling carried out on 16 March 2005 shows that the moat fill of the Vossenberg has been preserved, at a depth of approximately 60 to 100 cm. The moat ran between the two dark bands visible on the aerial photograph (see middle page) and was several meters wide. It is covered by sixty centimeters of raised soil of mixed composition, probably soil derived from the leveled motte body.

In the moat there are burnt wood residues and under the moat there is alluvial material with peat residues. The subsoil consisted of a swamp: an alluvial area. Its location in an alluvial plain, very typically indicates a castral motte. The canals were filled with water. The motte body itself may have been completely destroyed.

After the castral motte there may have been a moated site, the third option. Such a moated site was a farm surrounded by a moat that was built in the 13th to 14th century by a peasant family after the example of the former mottes, in order to show the wealth. Possibly it was an Einzelhof, a company that was responsible for the exploitation and exploitation of the surrounding, relatively low-lying area. In his book "Van Turnhoutervoorde tot Strienemonde" Leenders describes a good Ter Borch in Zondereigen, mentioned since 1350. Presumably this is the moated site? Soil maps and the copy of the Popp land register also show a more oval structure on the higher fields. This is also mentioned on the Vandermaelen map (1846) and on the topographic map of 1937. At that time, part of this canal was still visible.