Tespelduyn

History of Tespelduyn

Where once dune merchant Maarten van Huchtenburg chased the rabbits out of their hole(s), golfers now chase their balls into a hole. At the same location where nowadays a jenevertje is poured after golfing, this jenever used to be illegally distilled. And where once a dune of sand was excavated, not so long ago a dune of waste was raised. Tespelduijn, or rather 't Espelduijn, has a long history. From a cultural-historical point of view, no tangible things can be found, but stories all the more, which makes the area interesting for a closer look.'t Espelduijn probably owes its medieval name to a species of tree, the Aspen. This part of the Hoogeveen polder traditionally consisted of large forest plots. The " 't " of the article "it" was popularly attached to "Espelduijn" and that is why we now speak of Tespelduijn. We also know of a Tespellaan that ran to the Nieuwe Watering and there used to be 't Espelbos. The Tespelduijn was a small dune east of the large beach embankment of the Oosterduin. Actually no more than a small dune island surrounded by the ancient meadows and woods of the Darijcampen, the name for the area between Delfweg, Herenweg, Trekvaart and Tespellaan.

On old maps of the Hoogheemraadschap the dune is already marked, right next to a shortcut that led to the Ter Lugt farm on the Delfweg. The dune has been part of the noble estate Ter Lugt for a long time. From the beginning of the ^16th century we can name owners with certainty, starting with the considerable Haarlem family Van der Laen. They played an important role in the management of the Leeuwenhorst monastery but also in the administration of the county of Holland. This family held Ter Lugt and the Tespelduijn for almost a century. The heirs of Nicolaas van der Laen, living at the Ter Specke house in Lisse, among other places, sell their Noordwijkerhout property in 1598 to their legal advisor, the Leiden man Frans van Dusseldorp. In the list of plots sold we come across an early mention of the Espelduijn.

"...that Espelduijn, which presently holds in lease that widow of Jacob Claeszoon Foppen (1598)."

What is striking is the rectangular, unnatural shape, which the dune already had at the beginning of the ^17th century and is still recognizable today. It is therefore possible that centuries ago part of the dune was sanded down. When this rectangular plot is first officially measured by the land registry in 1832, it turns out to be over 3.5 hectares in size and is described as "dune." The plots around the dune are listed as pasture or forest. However, the name Tespelduijn has always been used more broadly than just the dune itself, and this included land that is now part of the golf course. In the ^17th century, the Tespelduijn was inhabited by the family of Maarten van Huchtenburg, a dune merchant. He lived off the proceeds of rabbit hunting, kept some livestock and performed maintenance by helminth planting. He built his house in 1638 on a plot called "half of 100 nobles" that must have been right next to or on the Tespelduijn. The house was demolished in the early ^19th century and the Tespelduijn then remained uninhabited for over 50 years. Hendrik (Hein) Pennings, who lived on farm Huis Ter Lugt, became the owner of the rectangular dune in 1843 and 25 years later had a farm built here for his daughter Margaretha who married Simon Verdegaal. This couple initially leases the farm but, after Hendrik's death, receives the buildings with 28 acres of pasture from his estate. Piet, the son of Simon and Margaretha Verdegaal is the last owner of farm Tespelduijn. In addition to farming, Piet grew flower bulbs. From 1918 he was an unpaid gendarme, the title given to many a gamekeeper. But like most gamekeepers, he sometimes poached a rabbit for his own profit. Illegal was also the gin distilling he was once caught doing. Whether that played a role in the burning down of the Tespelduijn farm in December 1929 is not known, but the police wanted to have a good talk with Pete a few days later. The farm building was rebuilt several years later but now entirely as a bulb farm, with a tall barn behind the new residence. Piet Verdegaal's son, Cor, lived here with his family until 1975. Interestingly enough, the southern part of the rectangular dune plot was split off in the 1886 estate of Hendrik Pennings and remained the property of the widow Krijntje Pennings-Oostdam. This southern portion of more than 2 ½ acres therefore never belonged to the Tespelduijn farm. The original height of this dune section is unknown but in any case the amount of dune sand was interesting enough to sand it down at the beginning of the ^20th century. In 1909, a partnership from Lisse bought this part of the Tespelduijn from the widow Pennings-Oostdam. In this sand extraction company, Mr. Van Hardenbroek plays a prominent role, the man who in 1904 founded the "Arnoud" limestone factory, now better known as Van Herwaarden. The land deposited remained the property of the Hillegom brickworks for a long time. In the same period, the Steengracht Canal is constructed for sand extraction on the initiative of the Baroness Van Lynden-Van Pallandt (Keukenhof). The canal bears the surname of her grandfather. After five years of preparation and application of permits, from 1910 this canal is in use for sanding down the western Twistduin, owned by the baroness. With the sanding off from the beginning of the ^20th century, the landscape took on the shape we know today. The "mountain" of the former landfill was formed on land that was part of the Espel forest for centuries. These parcels of forest had different ownership histories; for example, the Roman Catholic Church community of Sassenheim was the owner. For centuries, many a Noordwijkerhout family stoked the stove with coppice wood from the Espelbos that could be purchased at the annual auction during the winter. The woods have long since disappeared and on the plots, where an 11-meter-deep pit was still created after sand mining, a landfill was realized, which was given a regional function in the 1970s. In 1982, after years of discussion, this landfill was finally closed. As an alternative function, administrators at the time thought of using the landfill for forestry, cross-country racing or landscape park. But a golf course was also seen as an option even then.

Cor Verdegaal's family lived at the Tespelduijn until 1975, when Piet Duivenvoorde renovated the house after purchasing it and, among other things, lowered the business section below the level of the residential roof. With which he took a first step in the development of today's golf complex.

List of owners of the Tespelduijn

1548 Gerrit van der Laen
1568 Nicolaes van der Laen (with heirs)
1598 Frans van Dusseldorp
1635 Gerard van Buijtewech
1645 Machtelt van Buijtewech
1677 Gerard, baron Van Wassenaar
1678 Thomas Walraven Van Wassenaar
1726 Gerard, baron Van Wassenaar
1752 Margaret, dowager Van Wassenaar
1778 Louise van Montmorency-Van Wassenaar
1803 Cornelis van der Elst
1825 David Amelius van Sorgen
1832 Cornelis van den Bosch
1843 Hendrik Pennings
1886 Krijntje Pennings-Oostdam (southern part)
Simon Verdegaal, later son Piet Verdegaal and grandson Cor Verdegaal (farm/home)
1909 Van Hardenbroek/Van Herwaarden (southern part)
1975 Piet Duivenvoorde