Het Voornse Berkenrijs: van keizerlijk hakhout tot caravanopslag

Abstract

Berkenrijs on Voorne: from imperial coppice to caravan park Berkenrijs means ‘birch coppice’, which was formerly used for the periodic harvesting of branches and twigs. On Voorne, ‘Berkenrijs’ is a field name that appears in records and on maps from the Middle Ages onwards. Now there are still street names: Berkenrijs, Berkenrijspad and Berkenrijsweg, all near the old Limiet between the former lordships of Rockanje and Oostvoorne. There is no longer any birch wood to be found here, but there is a single row of alders. If the land had remained the property of large landowners, coppices along the inner dune fringe would have often turned into standing wood, such as on the Voorne estates of Mildenburg and Kranenhout. After the old imperial estate Berkenrijs was given an agricultural purpose, probably not until the 20th century, it even ended up as a caravan park. In the protected village landscape established by the state (Ontginningen Voornes Duin, 2017), Berkenrijs appears to be a blind spot.