The Achtermeer

Since I was always interested in data concerning water management and protection against flooding, I was generally very well received. This was probably partly due to the fact that not many people were interested in these records. A former employee of the IJsselmeerpolders Development Authority also did a lot of research for me.

Ultimately, this research in archives has played an important role in the realization of my thesis and in the discovery that in the Netherlands there are not - say - about forty lakes and ponds that have been drained, but at least four hundred and forty-five. Their number and surface area per province is shown in the table below. A distinction is made between more or less natural lakes and lakes that were created by excavation of, or dredging peat for fuel.

Because excess water of a drained lake can only be discharged by pumping, the first drained lakes were reclaimed much later than polders in low-lying areas and lands gained on the sea. In both types, excess water was drained through discharge sluices at low tide for centuries. Nowadays, due to land subsidence and rising sea levels, discharge by pumping is necessary for almost all polders in the Netherlands.

During my research I also wanted to know what was the first drained lake in the Netherlands. Based on data that had been collected in the meantime, I had gotten the impression that the first drained lake probably had to be near the city of Alkmaar, because several polders that had been drained from about the middle of the sixteenth century were located there.

I then paid a few visits to the City Archives of Alkmaar - now the Regional Archives. Here I also found an Introduction to the Inventory of the Archives of the Achtermeer, a polder of 35 hectares, just south of Alkmaar, drawn up in 1963 by the archivist, Mr. Eijken. This introduction mentioned that on 20 November 1532, Jan Jansz., bailiff of the Nieuwburg and Willem Jansz., sheriff of Alkmaar, were granted permission by Count Floris V for the draining of the Achtermeer. In further searching I found a mention of De kroniek van Wijnkoper which stated that in 1533: "..... the poles (were driven) to reclaim the Achtermeer." There was also a letter of an unknown person to Jan Jansz. d.d. 18 November 1536 about his:"nyeuwen lande, gemaict uuyte Achtermeer" ("new land created in the Achtermeer").

Based on the archive documents from 1553 and 1557 it can be concluded that the polder was dry at that time. The Consent for reclamation from the Municipality of Alkmaar and the Permission of Floris V are also available for this reclamation. This permission states, among other things:

"It is now so that the Petitioners came to some strange consideration, thinking that in the event of great heavy costs, one might leave the water of the aforementioned lake and drive it out at a slow pace and make it into land, although nevertheless the same was not quite feasible and indeducible to perfect effect, than as aforementioned with great heavy costs and trouble."

Based on the above information, it may be concluded that the Achtermeer was the first drained lake in the Netherlands in or shortly after 1533. Shortly afterwards, the Kromwater followed in 1546, the Kerkmeer in 1547, the Greb in 1548 and the Dielofsmeer around 1557. All these drained lakes were located in the vicinity of Alkmaar.

Originally, the reclamation was created for agriculture, but the Achtermeerpolder has since been fully urbanized and incorporated into the cityscape of Alkmaar as a residential area. The windmill was replaced in 1913 by a diesel pumping station, which also drains the excess water from the adjacent polder Overdie.