Zoetermeersche Meerpolder

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

Land sinks

From the 14th century onwards, farmers around the lake increasingly dug up the peat for the extraction of peat. And they drained the swampy ground with ditches. This meant compaction of the ground, so that the area was lower than the lake. Due to wave action, the water spilled over and through the small dikes.

Wealthy Investors

Three men conceived the plan to avert this danger: Jacob van Wijngaarden, master craftsman of Zoetermeer, the Leiden professor of medicine Aelius Everardus Vorstius and the merchant Johan Pellicorne, who came from Antwerp and lived in Leiden. On 15 March 1614 they received permission from the States of Holland and West Friesland to drain the lake. It was the first major reclamation below the IJ. Because of the risks and required investments, the initiators and co-investors were granted exemption from all kinds of taxes for years.

Grinding three mills

They had a ring dike built around the lake with a ring canal. These came through two abandoned (locks) to the higher basin waters at Stompwijk and the Noord-Aa. A corridor of three mills with paddle wheels standing one behind the other slowly drained the lake; and then kept it dry in wet times. Until 1895, a very low-lying part in the southwest had to be drained with a small meadow mill.

In 1926, a motor pumping station took over the work of the mills, which lost their blades. The truncated undersides are still on the northeast side of the polder.

Middelweg

Between the two villages of Zoetermeer and Stompwijk, a road was built in the middle of the polder, aptly named Middelweg. In 1616, the almost 540 hectares of agricultural land were divided into 30 lots. Farms were built against the ring dike. A third of the drained area fell under Stompwijk, the rest under Zoetermeer.

Oil, cows and nature

The Meerpolder has remained virtually intact despite some buildings, reparcelling and oil extraction. Farmers still live along the ring dike, grazing cattle and cultivating 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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