Holwerd

Holwerd (Frisian Holwert), is the biggest village that comes under the municipality of Dongeradeel.

I found Holwerd very interesting, it had a lovely peaceful feeling,and the people were very friendly. It was windy, cold, with a bit ofthreatening weather for rain. The sun shone now and again. It waslovely having the strong wind blowing in your face.

smithy Alley

The village was very picturesque and there were lovely sweet littlelanes, with quaint names on, for example this little lane was calledsmith lane, smeederijtjelaan), where in the old days they had littlehouses which were smithy fords linning the street. I just love this.

Old farm house with barn attached

Old Farm House. There was a very old farmhouse with the old barn next too it, you do not see them that often any more.

Old houses with Wooden hayloft door

We then turned into another lane and came across this old lane witha row of old houses with the little wooden hayloft door still intactnear the top of the house. This was also where they would load theirgoods or furniture upstairs on a rope, what ideas they had in thosedays.

reminded me of a house in Rhodesia/South Africa

There was a lovely big house that was white on a corner and I thinkit was a restaurant , it was big, reminded me of the houses in SouthAfrica and Rhodesia one forgets how big houses can be.

Spring is one of my favourite seasons the trees and flowers are veryexciting, there were some rather exoctic trees and flowers to me thatis, I have never seen them before in my life, how absolutely beautiful.

The church was once again a Dutch Reform church, that was once Catholic. It was very big and impressive, you could not get it in one photograph,the tower was very high and had bird nests in.

New-Zealand Air-corps WWII

In the cementry in the church grounds, there was a memorial, for the NewZealand Air corps, who had fought in the second world war and wereburried there.

Courtesy Jarig Bakker.(F.O.T.W).

From Holwerd you can sail to to the island Ameland, which is a verypopular holiday resort. The coast of Holwerd runs rather straight itruns from east to west.

The pier of Holwerd is a very vexy sight with a lot ofRijkswaterstaat-flags and houseflags of Wagenborgen and flags ofFryslxe2n and the Netherlands

Holwerd has a coat of arms it is on yellow, a red mercury staf, in chief blue with a turned white crescent.

Courtesy Jarig Bakker (F.O.T.W).

The emblem on the flag is of Mercury (the god of trade), which thisvillage is well renowned. The blue on the flag is for the WaddenseaWaddenzee), the yellow for land, (a lot of wheat used to be grown here).

Holwerd village has a wind mill that was from the year 1713, the name is 'The Hope' ('De Hoop').

Holwerd had a lot of storms and flooding in the past which testedthese poor people. In the village stood a old fortified farmhouse wherethe grietman (someone who was in authority,like a mayor) lived, he wasthe highest official from the municipality/grietinij fromWest-Dongeradeel.

The farmhouse was also used as the courtroom and in the basement(kelders), of the farmhouse was the prison cells. In the past thethieves, drunkards and tresspassers, were imprisoned. To this day thisprison is still intact.

Holwerd still has old houses that used to be a blacksmith(smederij), Lawyers house (notaris), and a wharehouse (pakhuis) forgrain and flax.(vlas).