Bomvrij militair object, NHW-Batterij a.d. Overeindseweg

English translation

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Description

Cluster 52. Earthworks with gun emplacements and rampart.

NEW HOLLAND WATERLINE

Introduction

EARTHWORKS WITH GUN EMPLACEMENTS AND RAMPART as simple, defensible components of a work specially constructed to guard an inundation canal and an access. At numerous locations within - mostly on the ramparts - and outside the forts, gun positions were prepared. These emplacements (may) date from different periods and have sometimes been (re)arranged multiple times. A large part of the gun positions was situated in the open air and consisted of little more than a levelled platform covered with grass or wood. The covering usually consisted of a (low) earthen rampart or breastwork and traverses, in which local depressions for the guns were sometimes provided. In a number of cases emplacements were constructed on top of bombproof structures and there were (been) ramps to bring the cannons up by horses or manpower. Gun positions usually occurred in (small) groups, allowing them to function as a battery. Many earthen emplacements and breastworks have disappeared or become difficult to recognise over time, but in a number of locations they are still present or again recognisable (made). The earthworks of the two batteries on the Overeindseweg were constructed from 1871 onwards. Batteries are (relatively small) installations in which multiple gun pieces are arranged in relationship and often in more or less linear order; however, the still existing northern battery has taken on the character of a small fort. An added bombproof structure and a 20th-century machine-gun casemate are also covered by earthworks. The earthwork now comprises mainly remains of the rampart on the east side of the northern battery, which extends southwards to the Overeindseweg and the same drainage channel. The southern battery was cleared during the rerouting of the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal at the Plofsluis in 1981-1982. The bridge and the sluice are part of the Overeindseweg. The Inundation Canal extends from south to north along the entire work and splits into a ditch in the process.

Description

EARTHWORKS WITH GUN EMPLACEMENTS AND RAMPART, of which those of the battery are approximately shooting-pond shaped and of which the height differences are formed by coverings of bombproof buildings and by remains of emplacements in the rampart on the east side of the work. The north-south oriented earthwork extends on the south side to the Overeindseweg. In the earthworks on the battery, several bombproof buildings covered with earth on three sides and on top, and a machine-gun casemate are incorporated.

Valuation

The EARTHWORKS WITH GUN EMPLACEMENTS AND RAMPART are of general importance because of:

* Cultural-historical values as part of the New Holland Waterline as designed by C.R.T. Kraijenhoff and initially constructed from 1815 by him, Jan Blanken and Major-Engineer Willem Offerhaus and subsequently strengthened and improved by others for more than 125 years.

* Architectural-historical values, in particular as an expression of military-strategic building technique, which is based on: a. the system of inundation and access defence (19th century), b. the race with increasingly strengthening offensive means (19th and 20th centuries), c. the system of 'living' field fortification in depth (20th century).

This is a component that mainly dates from the years 1871-1873, but was subsequently improved and expanded, and is an example of an earthwork arranged for defensive purposes for the closing off and defence of an access and an inundation canal.

* Ensemble values and situational values as part of the New Holland Waterline. Also because of the functional and physical coherence with the other components of the complex and because of the reasonably good relationship with the field of fire.

* The component is relatively rare because as half of a predominantly earthen installation it is still a good example of an earthwork arranged for defensive purposes for the closing off and defence of an access and of an inundation canal.

* The component is reasonably well preserved because most of its constituent parts are present in recognisable form and the original reason for construction is still clearly readable from the context.