Zevenhuizen (; gos, Zeuvenhuzen, , or ) is a village in the municipality of

Westerkwartier The Westerkwartier (; en, Western Quarter) is a historical region in the Dutch province of Groningen, at the border with the provinces of Drenthe and Friesland. In the past the area was part of the historical region of Frisia. The West Frisi ...

in the province of

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

in the Netherlands. As of 2021, it had a population of 2,725.

History

Zevenhuizen is a relatively young village. For centuries there was no village, only a wild raised bog. Initially, this peat was excavated and reclaimed on a small scale by the farmers as an extension of the estates of (with

Tolbert Tolbert is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Berlinda Tolbert (born 1949), American film and television actress, ''The Jeffersons'' *Caroline Tolbert, American political scientist *Emanuel Tolbert (born 1958), American football ...

as its main town). After the establishment of the Van Ewsums at , peat extraction was tackled on a large scale. The pattern of a peat colony is clearly recognizable in the numerous canals of Zevenhuizen. Along these canals were dirt roads, which have since been asphalted. A large peat fire, as a result of buckwheat fires on 11 June 1833, destroyed a vital part of the peat between De Wilp and

Leek The leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of ''Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek ( syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a stem or stalk. The genus ''Alli ...

and with it a large part of the village of Zevenhuizen. The fire killed four people, burned more than 60 houses, and destroyed 1,167,000 tons of peat. Zevenhuizen became a church village in 1835; the Reformed church of Zevenhuizen was built in that year, the spire was erected three years later and the clock was taken over from the Frisian municipality of Oudeschoot. However, the church was so badly built that a new church had to be built on the same spot in 1869, the current church. In 1844 the seceding Reformed founded their own church on the . Around 1850 there were already 430 houses and 2,600 inhabitants. In 1893, the village was released from its isolation by the construction of the paved road Leek-Zevenhuizen. Commonwealth War graves - The Netherlands - Zevenhuizen General Cemetery

Commonwealth War graves - The Netherlands - Zevenhuizen General Cemetery

After the Second World War, a memorial dedicated to all fallen victims during the German occupation was erected at the cemetery on the . In 1920-21 the Reformed church was renovated and in 1957 a new Reformed church was built in the village with a somewhat unusual white roof ridge. The old building at Evertswijk 23 was taken into use by a contractor and later demolished. The new Reformed church was also demolished in 2020. Zevenhuizen initially belonged to the municipality of

, but during a municipal reorganization in 2019, Leek was absorbed into the merged municipality of

Notable people

* Kim Polling (1999), judoka

References

Bibliography

External links

{{Authority control Populated places in Groningen (province) Westerkwartier (municipality)