Dickninge Estate

The Reest was created after the last ice age. The Reest area was hardly inhabited until the Middle Ages. It was a vast peatland with swamp forests here and there.

The dicninge farmhouse, already mentioned in letters of 1247 and 1261, in which tithes about Dicninge are donated and sold to the monastery at Ruinen, was much more extensive in earlier centuries than it is today. In addition to two large farms near the farm, this included the heirs of the BuIderij, the Dijkstatingerhuizen and the Kloeterij and also a large part of Broekhuizen. The property bordered to the south on the Reest, to the west on the havezate de Havixhorst and the erve de Hogt, now under Ruinerwold, to the north on the Koekanger A and to the east on part of Koekange and on the Wijkermarke. At a length of about 3/4 hour, she had an average width of about 1/4 hour. This originally included a large expanse of heathland and wild land, which was gradually cleared, creating the Dijkstatingerhuizen or the meiers on the Diek, south of the Echtensche diep, and the Broekhuizen, north of it.

In 1325 the monastery of Ruinen was moved to this place. Monks from the monastery of Dickninge also cultivated large areas of land. It was only in the course of the Middle Ages that individual farmers cleared plots of land into fields or hayfields. The farms were built on drier sand heads, also called horsts. Old farm names are Dickninge, De Schiphorst, de Havixhorst, de Lindenhorst and De Hoge Linthorst.

From here the churches in Beilen, Blijdenstein, Ruinen and Westerbork were served. After 1580, probably as a result of the 80-year war, the monks had disappeared and the monastery was dissolved in 1603. In 1795 Baron R.H. de Vos van Steenwijk became the new owner. He demolished all the old buildings and erected a new (the current) building which was completed in 1813.

The monastery left its mark on the Reestdal until the 18th century. In 1783 the tower of Dickninge was still standing. It was struck by lightning. The chapel fell into disrepair and the last monastics left for Hasselt. In 1796 remnants of the monastery were sold to the baron de Vos van Steenwijk. He cleaned everything up and in 1813 erected the building, which still stands today. The only thing left of the monastery is the ice cellar. It has now been completely restored and is now full of bats.
Now it belongs to Mrs. Roëll. She lives in the toll booth on the edge of the estate. The Dickninge house has been renovated and four apartments have been made in it. The municipality of De Wijk once had plans to turn it into a town hall, but that did not go through. It had been a nice place for it. In the past, the estate also owned many farms. They have all been sold.
On the estate, near the house, there is also a very large farm with two very large baanders in it. The building does not stand out. Landgoed Dickninge has a very nice large ash tree between the country house and the toll house . And on one of the avenues is a beautiful monumental farm. A few years ago, the estate was horribly cut down. Many capital historical trees were then removed. That was unfortunate and also unnecessary.
Until 1960, tolls were still levied on the estate. Jan Stapel was a toll collector there at the time. The road that runs over Dickninge was a private road. If you came from Halfweg you could turn left before the toll house, onto the old Staphorsterweg, but you could also cross the estate. You had to pay a toll. Behind the hospital of Meppel on the Reggersweg was also a toll house.
The toll sign can still be seen on the façade. The road over Dickninge was part of the route to Ruinen. The stagecoach also passed by. Halfway was between Zwolle and Ruinen and that was halfway through the route. At the Gilded Ros, the horses were changed or they took a break.

On the estate you will find various rare plants including burrow root, forest anemone, spotted arum, snowdrop and muskweed. Landgoed Dickninge attracts many visitors in early spring who come to see the burrow root. The plant comes in white and purple and the flowers are mainly visited by bees, bumblebees and lemon butterflies.

The Holwortel is a stinsen plant that came here thanks to the monks of the Dickninge monastery, which existed here for years. The word stins means stone house. People with a stone house were rich and could plant different plants in their garden than the average citizen. The monastics did too, only they were probably not concerned with the flowers, but with the medicinal substances contained in the hollow root. The burrow root is therefore also called monastery herb.

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