YERSEKE MOER

From the creek ridges, (often dead-end) side roads lead into the low pool areas. They are called pathways or search routes. These roads are considered to be access roads to the ponds with the aim of removing the peat present there. Peat was much more than just fuel here. After all, the peat contained salt and salt used to be worth its weight in gold. After all, thanks to the salt, the food no longer spoiled!
In the oldland polders in the south-west of the Netherlands, salt has been extracted from peat on a large scale. The peat present was covered with layers of clay during floods by the sea and became soaked with salt water during that process. The saline peat was the raw material for peat salt production, which took place on a large scale in the southwestern marine clay area, especially in the 13th and 15th centuries. The excavated saline peat was dried, doused with seawater a few more times and dried, until it was saturated with salt. After that, the salty peat was burned in the salt chain and the salt was extracted from the ashes.
Salt extraction had major consequences for the landscape. Due to the excavation of the saline peat layers, the ground level subsided, making the natural discharge of excess surface water increasingly difficult. The sea was, as it were, invited to penetrate further into the land. As a result, numerous flood disasters were the result of salt extraction. The situation was further adversely affected by the often uncoordinated approach that was initially allowed. Pits were dug at random to dig out the saline peat under a layer of clay deposited by the sea. The clay was 'thrown aside for a while' and after the peat had been removed, it was thrown back again very carelessly. This method of peat extraction has given the Yerseke Moer its hollow appearance.

In the photo: The Zoekweg near Yerseke

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