Old open-air pool on the Berkel Billerbeck

In the southeast of Billerbeck lies the bowl-shaped valley that contains the source area of the Berkel with several springs. The original main spring creek originates in the hamlet of Dörholt near the Schulze-Brock farm ("Alte Berkel") in a small piece of woodland. The currently "official" Berkel spring, however, is located about 1200 m further north at the outskirts of Billerbeck in the district of Holthausen.
The "Neue Berkel" flows through a pond, merges after about 500 m behind a weir with the "Alte Berkel," and then continues northeast through the urban area towards Coesfeld. The Berkel source area has steadily changed over the last 150 years. One intervention is, for example, the dumping of soil material onto the wet meadows, which were largely afforested with hybrid poplars in the early sixties. Other measures included the establishment of a bathing facility (currently used as a fishing pond), the creation of a source pond, the encasement of the spring, and the development of the area with paved footpaths.

The Berkel flows over a length of 150 KM from Billerbeck through Coesfeld, Gescher, Stadtlohn, Vreden into the Netherlands, past Eibergen, Borculo, Lochem, and Almen, and empties into the IJsselmeer.

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