Kolhorn

Kolhorn was located by the sea until 1844. It was a real fishing village with fishermen's houses (photo) and a small harbor on the Omringdijk. People not only lived from fishing, but also went to the tidal flats near Wieringen to harvest seaweed. Indeed, the Omringdijk was shielded on the sea side from the salt water by a wall of seaweed until three hundred years ago. Kolhorn reaped the benefits.

Like Hoorn and Enkhuizen, Kolhorn benefited from the prosperity of the United East India Company (VOC) in the seventeenth century. The port of Amsterdam was difficult for fully loaded merchant ships to reach because of Pampus, a silty shallow just before the city. Another obstacle was the stubborn sandbanks off Texel. The Company was in great need of small ships that could take on some of the cargo. 

The Kolhorners knew how to deal with that. They sailed on small ships, called barges, to Texel to take over the spices (picture). Then they sailed to their final destination, the port of Amsterdam. The system also worked the other way around: the provisions of a ship that was to sail to the East Indies were already shipped to Kolhorn and from there to Texel. 

Kolhorn supplied West Friesland not only with fish and seaweed, but also with peat. This fuel from Groningen and Drenthe was stored in peat sheds. These are still standing on the dike.

Between 1844 and 1847 the polders Waard and Groet were founded north and south of Kolhorn. As a result, the village was no longer located by the sea, but did maintain a connection with it via an outlet between the polders (arrow on the photo). De Waard and Groet were not immediately the agricultural paradise that the dryers had hoped for. The soil was too salty. One plant that did thrive there was madder. 

The value of madder school in the roots. These were dried and stewed in an oven after harvesting. This was done in towers that stood in the polder. The roots were then ground to powder in a factory. Such a factory stood in Kolhorn since 1862. The dark red powder was used as dye in the textile industry. This industry did not last long, because around 1870 it became possible to obtain the sought-after dye by chemical means. The people in the photo are harvesting madder. 

By 1890, anchovies became popular, a species of fish found in the Wieringermeer. The fishermen of Kolhorn seized their opportunity. In the village, the catch was cleaned and pickled in salt. The anchovy catch was not long-lived either, because the Wieringermeer was drained in 1930. The Zuiderzee and fishing belonged to the past forever.