Sprang is a village in the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

province of

North Brabant North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the we ...

. It is located in the municipality of

Waalwijk Waalwijk () is a municipality and a city in the southern Netherlands. It had a population of in and is located near the motorways A59 and N261. The villages of Capelle, Vrijhoeve-Capelle, Sprang (the former municipality of Sprang-Capelle) and W ...

, about 12 km north of

Tilburg Tilburg () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern province of North Brabant. With a population of 222,601 (1 July 2021), it is the second-largest city or municipality in North Brabant after Eindhoven and the seventh-larg ...

History

The village was first mentioned in 1331 as Spranc, and is a water name (from the same root word as

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...

). Sprang is a road village which developed after

William III, Count of Holland William the Good ( nl, Willem, french: Guillaume; – 7 June 1337) was count of Hainaut (as William I), Avesnes, Holland (as William III), and Zeeland (as William II) from 1304 to his death. Career William, born , was the son of John II, Coun ...

had awarded concessions to excavated the

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

in the area in 1301. The Dutch Reformed church dates from around 1400. The tower was added in the late 15th century. The church was supposed to be much bigger. A part of the tower collapsed in 1612 and was not repaired until 1911. The

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

Dye Sprancke was built around 1747. From 1930 onwards, the wind mill started to be used less and began to deteriorate. In 1958, it was bought by the municipality and has been restored several times. It operates on a voluntary basis. Sprang was home to 1,526 people in 1840. Sprang was a separate municipality until 1923, when it became part of

Sprang-Capelle Sprang-Capelle is a former municipality in the North Brabant province of the Netherlands. It was formed in 1923 as a merger of the municipalities of Sprang, Vrijhoeve-Capelle and 's Grevelduin- Capelle. Therefore Sprang-Capelle consists of three ...

. A large part of the village was destroyed in 1945. In 1997, it became part of

Gallery

File:Voorgevels - Sprang - 20203475 - RCE.jpg, Street view (1976) File:Molen sprang 2.jpg, Wind mill Dye Sprancke File:Kerk sprang 1.jpg, Dutch Reformed church

References

{{Commons category, position=left Populated places in North Brabant Former municipalities of North Brabant Waalwijk