Peat shipping

The peat shipping to Breda.

A peat canal is a dug watercourse that was constructed to transport peat from the extraction site (usually a peatland) to the market (usually a city).

The peat was transported by peat ship or peat barge. The word peat shipping therefore also refers to the traffic caused by the peat vessels.

Peat shipping as a watercourse
Apart from that, the Turfvaart is also a proper name for one particular peat canal. The Turfvaart is a watercourse of about 24 km length that runs through the nature reserves Pannenhoef and Vloeiweide past Effen to Breda, where it flows into the Aa or Weerijs.

The Turfvaart was dug in the 17th century. The first part of the Turfvaart was completed in 1619. The canal was an important artery from which the area was vegetated. The canal drained the peat bog and transported the peat to Breda. On the way back, the peat ships took manure with them, in order to make the peat bog area fertile. However, it was too little to make the mined areas all fertile. Many of them became heathland again, until after 1900 they were mined or planted with coniferous wood.

Wim Blankers