Workers colonies around the Campine

The Campine is a region in the former Duchy of Brabant and is now located in both Belgium and the Netherlands. The undulating landscape is mostly made up of sandy soils and is crisscrossed by streams, brooks and small rivers. The area used to be wooded with some moorland, until the resettlement of Germanic tribes under the Romans who called the region Taxandria (after the Yew trees that grew here). The name Campine is derived from the Latin Campina, which means at the flat land and relates to the lack of hills and other height features. The Flemish Campine occupies most of the provinces of Antwerp and Limburg; the Dutch Campine occupies about a third of the province of North Brabant. A few smaller parts of Flemish Brabant also belong to the Campine.

The region wasn't very densely populated. Cities were located mostly around the more fertile edges, so villages and scattered hamlets dominated. These would be relatively isolated, always located near a stream, clearly outlined fields and a communal heath. Manors all but are absent here. Tithe was paid to the landlord at a grain store or at a manorial farm. Much of the land was owned by monasteries (that had been granted the land by the Duke of Brabant to be made productive). Because of the abundance of moorland and swamps tracks that lead through the Campine never took the shortest route. This all changed with the building of shipping canals and railways. Between 1827 and 1946 7 canals were excavated connecting Meuse and Scheldt. The first Campine railway was opened in 1855 and connected Lier with Turnhout via Herentals. Importantly the so-called Iron Rhine -a railway line connecting the harbour of Antwerp with the German Ruhr Area via Dutch Limburg- was opened in 1879. This line connected to the older line at Herentals and passed through Olen, Mol, Lommel, Balen, Overpelt, Budel, Weert and Roermond and from there on to Rhyd near Mönchengladbach.

There was a lot of space in the heart of the Campine that had become very accessible by rail and waterway. This is also why the military camp of Leopoldsburg and the Vagrant colonies of Wortel and Merksplas were located in this region on former heathland. Land was cheap and there were few people to complain. Also local government was weak. This attracted heavy industry that was being regulated around Liege and Essen. There already was some industrial activity in the city of Turnhout, the rest of the Campine was rural or wasteland. By the end of the nineteenth century metallurgic industry settled in the central Campine near rail and canal. There were zinc works in Balen, Lommel, Overpelt, Rotem (Dilsen) and Budel. Other industry that settled here were an ammunitions works, a smelting plant, glass works, chemical plants (sulphuric acid, ammonia and nitrates), wood mills, sand quarries and brick works. Near these industrial sites new colonies were erected to house the workers that were typically brought in from elsewhere (Germany, Wallonia, Bohemia and Silesia).

The Campine (within the amber line) is situated between the cities of Antwerp and Eindhoven and overlaps with the coal basin in the east. In the west two vagrant colonies Kolonie Wortel (KW) and Kolonie Merksplas (KM). Industrial development started east of Turnhout (T) in the middle of the Campine in Overpelt-Fabriek (OF - 1880), followed by  Balen-Wezel (W - 1881), Budel-Dorplein (DP - 1892), Lommel-Werkplaatsen (LW - 1904), Rotem-Dilsen (RD - 1911) and Sint-Jozefs-Olen (JO - 1913). Of all the subsidiary workers colonies only Rauw (R) remains; Blauwe Kei, Glaswijk and Stevensvennen have disappeared (*) although there is still a village at Stevensvennen. The collieries at Beringen (B), Zolder (Z), Houthalen (H), Zwartberg (Zw), Winterslag (Wi), Waterschei (Wa) and Eisden (Ei) lie south of the band of heavy industry.

These colonies often lay at some distance of the original settlement. Sometimes a completely new village grew out of an initial colony (Mol-Rauw, Wezel, St Josef-Olen and Dorplein) or colonies were gradually incorporated into the urban sprawl (Overpelt-Fabriek ad Lommel-Werkplaatsen). None of these colonies were expanded by garden village type developments as was done with the mining colonies of the High Campine. They either remain as a recognisable unit of streets on a regular plan with repetitive housing -much like examples from the Ruhr Area- or were replaced by later housing (in the case of Stevensvennen). Some colonies have been dismantled, in the case of Glaswijk notwithstanding its listed status.