Zoetermeersche Meerpolder

The first inhabitants of Zoetermeer settled around the year 1000 on a large freshwater lake. They followed the natural streams via the Oude Rijn to the Noord-Aa and came a little further to the lake. There they fished and at the same time they cleared a small part of the surrounding peat bog to grow grain and graze cattle. Slowly the extraction grew in what we now call Buytenwegh and De Leyens.

From the 14th century onwards, farmers increasingly dug the peat around the lake for the extraction of peat. And with ditches they drained the soggy ground. This meant that the ground was clumped, so that that area was lower than the lake. Due to waves, the water skipped over and through the small dikes.

Around the lake they had a ring dike built with ring canal. These came through two abandoned (locks) to the higher bosom waters near Stompwijk and the Noord-Aa. A corridor of three successive mills with paddle wheels slowly emptied the lake; and then kept it dry in wet times. A very low-lying part in the southwest had to be drained with a small meadow mill until 1895.

The farms were built against the ring dike so that they remained dry. Farmers still live along the ring dike who work cattle pastures and fields. The polder forms a green buffer between the surrounding cities and is located on the edge of the Green Heart. The oval shape of the original lake is recognizable on every map.

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