Tour of Heerde

There are high hills on the estate. The Witte Berg, the Hooge Berg and the Filipsberg. From the heath on the Hooge Berg you have a wide view in an easterly direction.

The Zwolle waterworks
In the period 1850 - 1900, a great need for good drinking water arose in the city of Zwolle as a large number of city pumps produced poor drinking water. To solve this problem, the municipality of Zwolle requested the municipality of Heerde to sell 470 hectares of heathland for the extraction of drinking water and the construction of a water pipeline. This request was granted. 

The facade stone placed on the parking lot'Pump station\\\' was once part of the pumping station of the Zwolle water supply. Opened in 1892, in operation at the end of 1893 and closed in 1935.

The building was located in the Zwolse Bos on the Wapenveldseweg and served to extract drinking water for the city of Zwolle. The pumps were powered by coal-fired steam boilers. These pumps pushed the water via Hattem to the water tower at the Turfmarkt in Zwolle. The coal for the steam boilers was delivered by wagon and loaded into trucks. The lorries loaded with coal were pulled along a single track by a horse to the pumping station. The single track ran via the Flessenbergerweg over the Groteweg in a westerly direction and then next to the Wapenveldseweg to the pumping station. The Wapenveldseweg was also popularly called the'Black Road\\\' due to the many fallen coal remains.

The building was demolished in 1955 and the facade stone has been back in its old place since 2014.

The current parking lot'Pump station\\\' is located on the spot where the former pumping station must have stood. In addition to the facade stone, the'kret\\\', the kilometer-long sunken trench through the forest where water pipes were located, can also be admired from this parking lot. 

The parking lot can be found if you continue cycling straight from junction 84 to junction 85, halfway on the right you will find the'pump station\\\' parking lot.

The Zwolle Forest
The Zwolle forest is a popular walking forest with beautiful oak and birch avenues, interspersed with hilly heathlands, located between the villages of Heerde, Wapenveld and Wezep. These straight avenues date from the time when the area - then called Heerderheide - was used for heathland cultivation. At that time sheep grazed on the heath. At the beginning of the last century, the heath was largely exchanged for forest.

The Zwolse Bos owes its name to the water extraction for the city of Zwolle. From 1892 to 1960, the Veluwe drinking water was pumped to Zwolle.

The current forest is now over 100 years old and consists mainly of rustling coniferous forests, large Douglas firs, avenues, fens, and a beautiful large rolling heathland with a top of up to 40 meters high, the Tonnenberg.

Apeldoorn Canal
The Apeldoorns Canal is a canal in the Netherlands. The waterway runs from the IJssel near Dieren to the IJssel near Hattem and is closed in Apeldoorn by dams with culverts. From 1868 to 1961 it had the function of a "lateral canal" parallel to the IJssel. At low and high river levels, the IJssel was very difficult to navigate due to insufficient sailing depth or strong current. The route via the canal was also very attractive, especially for small ships.

The rise of the railways and motorized road traffic reduced the importance of the canal. There was still sufficient freight on the section from Hattem to the Berghuizer paper factory in Wapenveld. But that also declined, and widening and expanding this section was too expensive. As of January 1, 1962, the section from the Berghuizer paper factory in Wapenveld to Apeldoorn was closed to shipping.

The section from the IJssel near Hattem to the Berghuizer paper factory in Wapenveld remained open to shipping until 1982.

In 2009, a small part of the northern part of the canal is again navigable: 3.4 km from the mouth of the IJssel to the Hezenbergersluis.

Berghuizer Paper Factory
The Berghuizer Paper Factory was a paper factory located in Wapenveld near the hamlet of Berghuizen. The factory closed its doors in February 2008.

After 2012, part of the extensive grounds of the former paper factory was developed as a nature reserve by the Het Geldersch Landschap foundation. 

Hydroelectric power station
The Hezenberger weir to the Grift is located on the western bank between Hattem and Wapenveld. When renovating the weir in 2010, the water board took the opportunity to build a hydroelectric power station right next to the renovated weir. Because the water falls approximately 2.5 meters at this weir (from the Apeldoorn Canal into the Grift), the idea arose to use hydropower to generate electricity. The falling water sets an auger in motion. The rotating movement generates electricity. The investment is expected to pay for itself. The water screw can supply an average of 150 megawatt hours of energy per year, which is enough for the energy consumption of 43 households.

Hezenberger lock
The Hezenbergersluis is a lock with pointed doors and a drawbridge over the lower head in the Apeldoorns Canal. The lock was completely restored, completed in April 2007 and can be used for locking again.