Pelt is a municipality in the Belgian province of Limburg. Pelt was first mentioned in 815 as Palethe, later written as Pelthe and Peelt. This comes from Latin: "palus," which means swamp.
The current village of Overpelt originated from the Village-Hasselt pastures (herdgang - area or grounds through which a shepherd led his herd of sheep each day). Hasselt is a derivative of hazel (Corylus avellana).
Traces of prehistoric civilization have been found in Overpelt, including so-called urn fields. Together with the lower Neerpelt, it became more densely populated from the early Middle Ages. Until 1259, Over- and Neerpelt were referred to together as Pelt. In the late Middle Ages and beyond, Overpelt, together with Neerpelt, Kaulille, and Kleine-Brogel form the office pelt, an administrative area in the County of Loon (until 1366) then in the independent Principality of Liège (until the French Revolution). It reemerged on 1 January 2019 from the merging of the municipalities of Neerpelt and Overpelt. After Neerpelt and Overpelt had previously agreed in principle to a merger, the new name of the municipality was announced on 4 November 2017 after a local referendum on the question.
Overpelt had four pastures (herdgangen)of : Dorp-Hasselt, Lindel, Hoeven-Heesakker and Hoverseinde-Haspershoven, each of which had a certain independence. Nowadays, the hamlets of Lindelhoeven and Haspershoven have emerged from this, while Dorp-Hasselt has grown into the current center Overpelt. The village used to have three farmsteads belonging to the Abbey of Floreffe, the Abbey of Sint-Truiden, and the Abbey of Averbode. The Abbey of Floreffe owned large areas from 1140, which were mined, and on which three farmsteads were founded: Groote Hoeve, Kleine Hoeve, and Panhoeve. The Abbey had three watermills (Kleine Molen, Wedelse Molen and Bemvoortse Molen), a chapel, fish ponds and a brewery.
Residential cores
Overpelt consists of four church villages:
There are also four smaller residential centers:
Due to ribbon construction, the transition of the residential cores is no longer visible in many places.
A ribbon village, road village, street village, dike village, or regional village is a long sprawling village developed along a canal, dike, road, bank wall, or creek ridge. This creates elongated, contiguous buildings that are also called ribbon construction or linear buildings. Ribbon villages are common in Belgium and the north and west of the Netherlands.
A growth period took place in the 16th century when the cloth industry flourished. In 1545 permission was granted for the foundation of a cloth hall. Since then, there has also been a weekly market and two annual markets.
In the 17th century, when troops made the area unsafe, ramps were erected to protect the population from itinerant troops. This is how the Lindelseschans (1627), the Hoevenerschans, the Hoverseindseschans (1679), the Heesakkerschans and the Hasseltseschans (1643) were created. Partly these ramps are still visible in the landscape.
Overpelt knew martial acts: In 1543, troops of Emperor Charles V passed through Overpelt to fight the Calvinists in Sittard and Venlo. In 1568, in 1577 and 1587, Overpelt was again ravaged, in recent years by Protestant troops and Dutch riders respectively. From 1638-1640 there were Hessian troops, and from 1646-1654 it was Charles IV's troops of Lorraine who plundered and burned. At the beginning of the 18th century (War of the Spanish Succession) there were Dutch troops and in the 2nd half of the 18th century all kinds of troops came again, including French ones. As a whole, the population was also regularly affected by plague epidemics and other diseases.
In the Hobos Estate in Overpelt lived an important figure in the fight against the Bokke riders, Sheriff Jan Clerx (1759-1840), who had numerous Bokke riders executed.
In 1902 the Ursulinen in Overpelt founded a monastery on the current Kloosterstraat. They started a girls' school, and gradually expanded their activities with a custody school, a monastery farm and (1910) a chapel in reinforced concrete (possibly the first in Belgium). In 1920 a household school followed which was later greatly expanded, in 1929 a Lourdes grotto, and in 1938 a secondary school. The buildings were gradually expanded and still exist.
From 1815, Overpelt became a municipality in the province of Limburg of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands; after the division of Limburg (1839) it became a municipality in Belgian Limburg. Apart from the working-class district in Overpelt-Fabriek, the municipality retained a distinctly rural character until the 1950s-60s. Due to the expansion of allotments and the expansion of the industrial park, the view of the municipality has changed radically in recent decades. With the arrival of the Maria hospital and numerous flats, Overpelt evolved into a small-town area, together with the adjacent Neerpelt. An attempt to merge the two municipalities in 1977 failed after local protests. That same year, Overpelt ceded the Kloosterbos district to its southern neighbour Eksel.
In 2017 it was announced that Overpelt and Neerpelt will merge into a new municipality called Pelt in 2019. [1] On Sunday 14 October 2018, the future municipal council of the new municipality of Pelt could be elected, which took office at the beginning of January 2019.
Copyright © 2021 Patrick Van Pelt - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Van Pelts.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.