Deelen/Vrijland-Noord

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Description

TERRAIN with LAYOUT. The soil of Vrijland-Noord and surroundings consists of sand and forms part of a relatively flat area in the southern Veluwe pushed up by glacial ice. Vrijland(-Noord) is located on the north side of the Koningsweg, which runs roughly east-west along the south side of the Kemperberg, a straight road in rudimentary form dating from the last quarter of the 17th century - the time when stadtholder Willem III was king of England. The Koningsweg is still present as an important connection and as a spatially structuring element, partly because it served as a basis for clearing and settlement. East of the Kemperberg, from the middle of the 19th century onwards, clearing estates were established on either side of the Koningsweg, particularly on the lands of the local nobility and/or large landowners, with (tenant) farms upon them, including the private Vrijland. Vrijland was early on sharply 'marked out' in the landscape on the virtually rectangular terrain of approximately 800 x 500 m between the Koningsweg (s), the clearing boundary parallel to it cleared to the rear (n), the Oost-Vrijlandweg (now Hoenderloseweg) (e), the West Vrijlandweg (border with the clearing 'Petersburg') (w). In practice, farming on the poor Veluwe soils proved not easy and soon forestry became dominant and only on a fairly limited scale did arable land and pasture remain in use in the area, and particularly in the vicinity of the farms. As a side effect of forestry, a network of unmade, predominantly rectangular intersecting forest lanes appeared in the area north of the Koningsweg, a development that can be well traced on topographical maps from around 1870-1930. In the case of Vrijland, the terrain was arranged from 1871 by a timber merchant with lanes that were partly symmetrical and - especially in the northern half - for an important part also (virtually) at right angles to each other. These mostly straight lanes, planted with tall deciduous trees, enclosed several tens of plots of production forest and arable land, forming both in the field and in the map image and later especially from the air and on aerial photographs a 'not to be missed' checkerboard pattern. The forest lanes remained unmade, the central north-south and east-west running axes being excepted. Meanwhile, the terrain had passed in 1897 into the hands of a noble owner, Baron Van Heeckeren van Enghuizen, who had a spacious country house built there. This white house, which still exists in enlarged form, is located on the south side of Vrijland along the Koningsweg. Some 20 years later Vrijland came on the market again and this time it came into the hands of the English Roman Catholic congregation 'St. Joseph's Foreign Missionary Society, Trustees Cardinal Vaughan and others' - a broad vocational training for missionaries. Part of the then Vrijland - and in particular the south-western part - was built between 1924-1928 under the direction of architect A. Vosman with a chapel and with some detached monastery buildings, which for the most part fitted well into the existing lane system. In 1934 the villa was extended, and furthermore more and more forest plots were cleared to provide space for training in arable farming and cattle raising on poor soils. The map image and the field appearance thus changed greatly in the first half of the 20th century: around 1930 in the northern part of Vrijland outside the forest lanes scarcely any tall vegetation was present anymore; and remarkably, a clear relief had also developed: part of the agricultural land had been sanded down by several tens of centimetres. (A dating for this is not known, however, and cannot be derived from the topographical map either). In late summer 1940 the first Germans were quartered in the buildings of what had meanwhile become known as Oud-Vrijland, and from 1941 the entire existing complex was requisitioned by the Luftwaffe. The chapel became a cinema hall, the other buildings were used as accommodation for the airfield command, and in the course of the year - particularly in the north-western part of Vrijland - in the area of the production forest that had been largely cleared in the preceding years - various buildings were erected which would become part of the technical heart of Deelen: 'die Werft'. Moreover, the main entrance of the airfield was built on Vrijland: the still existing building at the corner of the Koningsweg and the present Hoenderloseweg. The existing lane system and the agricultural land within it were thereby 'respected' - or rather: maintained for strategic reasons, as they could serve excellently as camouflage for the mostly farm-like disguised workshops and accommodations. Without undergoing morphologically significant changes, the north-western part of Vrijland thus acquired, within a very short time, an entirely different character from a functional point of view. Even the lane network was not changed noticeably, although provision had to be made for parking areas for (mobile) equipment and aircraft. However, a number of connections on the site were hard-surfaced with 'typically Dutch' brick clinker paving, laid in various patterns, while the paths to and around the buildings on the site were laid with 30 x 30 cm concrete tiles. Furthermore, the rectangular site was enclosed entirely by pole and fence works executed in concrete and wire. Presumably partly for reasons of camouflage, a clear central parade ground dating from the German period is scarcely identifiable, but the green central area on the map of around 1955 between the southern and the central east-west oriented roads may have offered an opportunity for this, but possibly also the parking area east of the buildings.

Both the pattern of roads and paths and part of the old surface material is still present in the field or recognizable, while especially the layout executed in rectangular geometric pattern, dating from the third and fourth quarters of the 19th century in its initial design, is still present or recognizable in detail. An important part of the lanes is still present over its full length and extends from the Koningsweg to the runway laid along the north boundary of Vrijland in the Second World War, and from the present Hoenderloseweg to the present western access road to the site, while part of the forest, pasture and arable plots is also still present. Part of the main connections has meanwhile been provided with an asphalt wearing course, but the smaller roads and paths are still in a condition reminiscent of that of 1940. Thus, there are concrete tile paths at most of the buildings, while a large part of Vrijland still has to make do with unmade forest lanes. Parts of the fence works laid during the war are still more or less intact.

In the layout of the northern part of 'die Werft', deliberate use was made of the existing compartment structure and the buildings were erected neatly in line within the compartments, virtually without exception in the vicinity of one of the lanes. This not only meant that they were somewhat camouflaged by the trees, but also that the respective compartments remained open and could maintain an either staged or genuine agricultural function. Despite the fact that the buildings were positioned in an orderly manner, their concrete location nonetheless gave an ad hoc impression. They were placed at different distances from the lanes, with the ridge of the roof in different directions, and they also differed in floor plan and volume. The buildings were executed in such a way that by their roof form, painted shutters, outbuildings and yards they could pass for native farms. The differently executed roof forms - mainly gabled roofs, half-hipped roofs and hipped roofs were used - and the non-uniform colour finish of the tile covering provided building-related camouflage for this - objectively speaking - 'remarkable' military settlement. The buildings and hangars added around 1945 and later naturally did bring a densification of the built image, but there was little or no impairment of the character of Vrijland-Noord.

Many artefacts created on the camp for functional purposes and/or as part of camouflage are still recognizable or virtually intact in the terrain. This concerns first and foremost the buildings, but among others also the tile paths created as part of site layout still form striking features of the detailed layout of Vrijland-Noord from 1940.

The boiler house, building 14, was - together with others at various encampments of Airfield Deelen - the heart of one of the first district heating systems in the Netherlands. The camp was for this purpose provided underground with a network of heating pipes, of which at some places the manhole covers and pipe gutters are visible. Additional heating could take place on site via normal stoves or fireplaces. The electricity distribution took place from the transformer house (15) located north of the present entrance; presumably the power transport to the consumer - unlike what is customary nowadays - took place entirely above ground. With regard to (waste) water discharge, the septic system was used: via a pipe system with overflow and settling pits, which was executed in cast iron, gres pipe, masonry and concrete, a separate discharge was created for each building. The camp furthermore comprised a number of firefighting water bunkers - underground, to also be available in frost.

The various originally underground systems are still present in more or less complete and original form and partly still operational; of the firefighting water bunkers, some are still clearly recognizable, filled with water and thus usable. The electricity network has - apart from the transformer house - been replaced after the war; here and there material still remains that could stem from the period of construction.

Evaluation

TERRAIN with LAYOUT of Vrijland-Noord, of general importance as a relatively intact part of a large military airfield from the Second World War and set up by the German occupier, on account of: architectural-historical, urban planning, historical-geographical, technical-historical, military and cultural-historical and complex and ensemble values, which can be evident inter alia from the predominantly traditionalist building style inspired by local forms, from the components and details characteristic of the period of construction, from the elements incorporated in the concept, partly already present in the landscape and partly inspired by it, from the maintenance of the authentic course and the partly likewise original execution of roads and paths, from the quasi-agricultural functions of the buildings and the maintained quasi-agricultural land within the forest plots, from the relics of technical innovation - in particular those of the pipe network and of construction technique - from the military settlement structure, extensively and methodically established within a century earlier, fitted into the rural checkerboard pattern, in which camouflage carried through to the finest detail occurs, from the coherence of and with the total military airfield concept and the spatial main lines and components of the encampment, and from the mutual relationship of the forms applied therein.