Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: gemeente Apeldoorn

The Heldringkerk was built in 1857-1858, commissioned by the Reverend Ottho Gerhard Heldring. The foundation stone was laid by his daughter on 29 August 1857. The consecration of the church took place in 1858 during the feast of Pentecost. The church is one of the oldest buildings of Hoenderloo . Heldring visited the village of Hoenderloo in 1839 and decided to offer a better future to the inhabitants, who still lived partly in sod huts. He did this by building a school, digging a well and constructing the church and clergy house. The simple hall church - in neo-Gothic style - is characterised by plastered and white-painted facades. The church is built in a hilly area and is therefore popularly called de witte kerk op de bult (“the white church on the hill”). But the white colour was only given to the originally grey church in 1980. Since 2000 the church is a national monument.

Hoenderloo is a village, which only came into existence at the beginning of the 19th century on the rough lands of the Veluwe. In the spring, eekchillers went to this area to strip felled oak trees of their bark, which was used for tanning leather. The eekchillers lived with their families in temporary huts made of sods. Heather mower and shepherd Albert Brinkenberg was the first permanent resident of Hoenderloo. He built a sod hut (a simple hut partially buried and with a roof covered with sods) between 1813 and 1815. After him, more colonists followed. The residents were poor and worked as forest laborers, sheep shepherds, and plowmen, among other things. Slowly but surely, a small colony of huts made of sods arose. It was called Hoenderloo, after the many korhoenders (black grouse) that roamed there. The reconstructed cottage is really a stone's throw away from the hut that Brinkenberg built. The present wooden house (unfortunately not open to the public) gives some impression of how sober life must have been.

Unlike the name suggests, the Kootwijkerveen is not located near Kootijk, but somewhere hidden in the woods between the hamlets of Nieuw Milligen and Assel. It is a nature reserve that is unusual for the Netherlands: a peat lake surrounded on all sides by wooded shifting sand hills. The Kootwijkerveen has a long history that goes back to the Ice Age. It was originally a marshland area on the western slope of the Veluwe . Because of an impermeable layer, the water remains there and creates ideal conditions for the formation of moor peat. Peat was extracted here up until the Second World War. Later, pasture land was created. In the 1970s, the Dutch government organisation for forestry and the management of nature reserves ( Staatsbosbeheer ), began restoration work. The result is a beautiful lake at 40 metres above sea level: a wet oasis in the middle of dry sandy soil; created by ice ages, peat cutters and nature managers. The Kootwijkerveen can be visited along a signposted walking route, which starts at a car park near Nieuw Milligen.

The Aardhuispark is a fenced-off part of Kroondomein Het Loo (The Loo Royal Estate). It is situated - as the name suggests - around Het Aardhuis . The park offers a mixture of open landscape with a wildlife meadow, lanes with old beech and oak trees and water pools. A three-kilometre walking route has been marked out in the park. This route also leads to a hideout for wildlife spotting. During my last visit, I saw a group of 15 to 20 deer grazing and resting there (PiP1).

Het Aardhuis was commissioned by King Willem III and designed by court architect Henri Camp in 1861. Originally, the chalet-like building was mainly used as a military meeting centre and as a place to rest after a hunt. Prince Hendrik also liked to stay in Het Aardhuis which he used while hunting. That is why it is mainly known as a hunting chalet. Het Aardhuis is situated on the Aardmansberg (from which the name is derived), which at 102 metres is one of the highest points in the Veluwe. This location offered Willem III a magnificent view of the manoeuvres that the soldiers from a nearby camp were performing on the heathlands. In 1972, Queen Juliana decided to give the impressive black wooden building a different purpose. From a hunting chalet, it became an information centre about nature and wildlife. Today, the ground floor of Het Aardhuis houses a café-restaurant. On the first floor, one of the rooms is still furnished as it was in the days of King Willem III and Prince Hendrik, with a lot of attention for hunting (PiP3). Another larger room serves as an information centre for Kroondomein Het Loo (Het Loo Royal Estate).

Autumn along the 'Apeldoorn - Dierens Kanaal' nearby Oosterhuizen. This is the second part of the 'Apeldoorns Kanaal', a waterway from Hattem in the north to Dieren in the south. After arriving of King Willem I digging of the northern part started in 1825. Plans for the southern part between Apeldoorn and Dieren came into execution and digging began. Ten years later the canal was officially opened. In 1972 the canal was closed for shipping traffic; nowadays you only may see a canoe, rowing boat or pedal boat in the canal. More information about the Apeldoorns Kanaal (Dutch)l: www.apeldoornskanaal.com

The ‘Beekberger Enk’ is located between the villages Beekbergen, Lieren and Oosterhuizen more or less against a moraine, which came into being during the last ice age about 150,000 years ago. In the 19th century parts of the ‘enk’ still were heath land and shifting sand dunes. Farmers held sheep on these waste grounds. Sheepfolds were often found in the villages and every day the sheep were driven out to the heath and returned every night to their barn. The manure of the sheep in the barn, mixed with heather sods, was used to fertilize the landscaped acres. On this way came contiguous agricultural lands into being between the three villages. They were called ‘enk’. Some fields have been raised a meter or more during the last centuries. They still have a typical profile: high in the center and lower at the borders. The fields on the ‘Beekberger Enk’ are still used as arable land and one can still see the ‘hilly’ profile.