History from OVERMERE

Village of the Oriental-Flanders ( Belgium )
The ancient name of the village was spelled Overmeire, but after the modernisation of the Dutch spellin in 1946 it became Overmere.

Overmere, council of Berlaere, village of the Peasant War ( 12-10-1793 ). In 1934 there were in Overmere 3915 inhabitants on a surface area of 1372 hectares . It is located at 14 km of Dendermonde, 7,5 km of Zele, Laarne and Berlaere, 2,5 km of Kalken. From the 14 th to the beginning of the 16 th century was it the Masseman family's property.

http://members.brabant.chello.nl/~n.vanmossevelde/oorspron.htm

Sources :

Report of the Bachelors degree of Raf Burm  .

http://www.ethesis.net/index.html
http://home.scarlet.be/~sl002226/dendermonde/dendermonde_hfst_1.htm

The Dendermonde arrondissement.

Location and description of the area.

The northern and extreme west villages have principally a sand soil. The south-eastern villages have a mixed soil of sand and silt. The soil alongside the alluvia valleys of the rivers Schelde, Durme and Dender are composed from cley. Prinipally alonside the Schelde the extended alluvia were in certain cases gained upon the water. A well known example is the hamlet Kastel in the village of Moerzeke . The “Polders of Kastel” are very fertile soils where the horticulture flourished for ancient times. The since the 13the century systematic polderisationsd were of such an utmost imprtance that in 1255 a separate magistral bank has been created : it was “the marsh-law” which had 2 manger-scouts to apply for.. Not only Moerzeke had been made a conquest of ground on the water, but other villages Berlare, Overmere, Grembergen, Baasrode, e.a. did also to dry their marshes.

 

A brief economical history of the area.

The actual arrondissement of Dendermonde is the administratif successor to the “ancient region of Dendermonde”. At the end of the 9th century it came to its existence after the ancient Carolinish domain of Schelde and Dender of the abbeys of Lobbes and St Bavo was divided. Together with the region of Aalst , the Region of Dendermonde played his role as an important buffer area between the Roman papal States and France , and also between the duchy of Brabant and the earldom of the Flanders . Far in the past the valley of the Dender was a agricultural region There were countless estates belonging most to the religious institutions. In the 10 th century most of the estates were taken over by civilian power, after many of them were invaded and ruined by the Norman invasions.

There was also some industrial activity with the peat bog mining near to the rivers Schelde and Durme. Peat was the main combustible in dayly life and also for the numerous small soap factories. As a silent witness remain the names of the palces such as ‘koolputten' (coal mine) of  ‘colputten'. The lake “donckmeer” in Overmere came to its life after the peat bog mining.