Gorredijk

Gorredijk is the most important village within the municipality of Opsterland, inside the Dutch province of Friesland. It lies east of Heerenveen and southwest of Drachten. The village had 7357 inhabitants in 2017. The Opsterlandse Compagnonsvaart runs thru the middle of Gorredijk. Gorredijk is a so referred to as Vlecke that became created by peat extraction. In the beyond, Gorredijk turned into in general the region where matters had been imported, stored and traded.

A lot of peat turned into fed in Gorredijk, in particular from the location behind Tijnje. There changed into bitter poverty within the place. Jacob van Lennep says the subsequent about it in 1823: 'The Gordijcke is a bit more to the west than Heereveen, wherein some half savages or cave dwellers nonetheless stay, whose houses are third underground and stay from theft and begging. Of the 3 criminals convicted in Friesland, one is from that location. Gorredijk used to appearance one of a kind. Extensive peat bogs covered Southeast Friesland. This peat was later excavated and this industry attracted plenty of human beings to these then moderately populated regions.