The Wognumse Buurt
Outside the Geestpoort of Alkmaar

Johannes Bleau's 1652 map of Alkmaar shows the Groote Kerk, the Geestpoort, and the bridge leading to the tree-lined Geestveg.

In the mid-17th century, a Van Woggelum ancestor walked out of the door of Dutch Reformed church and through the Geest Gate in the western end of the walled city of Alkmaar. As he crossed a wooden bridge over the broad canal that encircled the city, he saw the broad tree-lined Geestweg. Van Woggelum crossed a second bridge, and then a third over the Haut Vaart. He turned right, walking down the Wognumse buurt which ran along the bank of the Haut Vaart. Shortly he was at his house in a small village on the left. This was Woggelummerbrug, one of the places of origin of the Van Woggelum family.

The western walls of the city of Alkmaar point like an arrow toward Woggelummerbrug on the Haut Vaart.

Woggelummerbrug is marked with a semicircle in the lower sheet of the map.West is at the bottom of this portion of a 1745 map by J. J. Dou. The Haut Vaart (wood canal) runs through where the left end of the semicircle meets the upper edge of the lower sheet to just left of the lower right corner. The Woggelummerburg is on the west side of the Haut Vaart, just to the left of the intersection with the Geestweg. The Geestweg is the road indicated with the double lines leading fom the Geestpoort in the western city wall.

A Translation of a Letter from the Regional Archive at Alkmaar

12 January 1988

Dear Sir,

The map of J. J. Dou van het Hoogheemraadschap van de Uitwaterende sluizen in Kennemerland en West-Friesland, 1745, 5th edition, page 16, shows that outside the Geest (or Berger) gate was Woggelummerbrug on the Houtvaart. Later on they called it the Wognumse buurt.

The village perhaps was named after the farm of a family from Wognum [near Hoorn.] Also is it possible that there was regular service by boat to Wognum.

The name of the Wognumse neighboarhood appeared for the first time in the index of the transport registry of Alkmaar in 1654.

In the cronicle of W.A.Fasel, Alkmaar en zijne geschiedenissen, 1600-1813, it is noted concerning the Wognumse buurt that in the beginning of 1769 "the pelmill was burned outside the Geestpoort on the Woggelummer-buurt."

There was a drawing at Prinsegracht 4 in the Haag that we do not have in our atlas collection. We are not aware of the present availability of that drawing.

Hoogachtend,
for the Regional Archive
P.A.A. van Vliet-Mak, hoofd top.atlas.

_____
1. The original translation of this document was done by J. C. Van Woggelum <jcvwog@wanadoo.nl> at the Hague in the Netherlands in 1998. Some editing of the translation was done by the author. The name of the person to whom the letter is addressed is not shown for privacy.

2. Bleau, Johannes. Tooneel der Steden. Amsterdam, 1652. The title page of the atlas reads "Nouum ac Magnum Theatrum Urbium Belgicae Liberae ac Foederatae, ad Praesentis Remporis Faciem Espressium. Ioanne Blaeu, Amstelaedamensi." A portion of the color map is shown. The entire map can be found at the web site Historic Maps of the Netherlands at <http://odur.let.rug.nl/~welling/maps/maps.html>.

3. Dou, J. J. van het Hoogheemraadschap van de Uitwaterende sluizen in Kennemerland en West-Friesland, 1745. 5th edition, page 16. A portion of the map in black and white. The map is courtesy of J. C. Van Woggelum <jcvwog@wanadoo.nl> of the Hague in the Netherlands.