Heveadorp, model factory housing

The village of Doorwerth in Guelderland was located on higher ground along the road connecting the once fortified cities of Wageningen and Arnhem near the eponymous Castle Doorwerth. The name translates as Thornworth and is a reference to the local floodplain of the Nether-Rhine that had thorny shrubs (read Hawthorn) growing on it. At the end of the seventeenth century the lord of the manor acquires two farms in the valley of the Seelbeek. This brook runs down the moraine crest of the Veluwe Massif. From 1700 onward the valley became the furthest extent of the manor. In 1888 both the valley of the Seelbeek and the Duno Estate are sold to Jonkheer Scheffer (a lord), who built a model farm called Huis ter Aa (House on the Stream). This idealist enterprise eventually went bankrupt so in 1914 both the valley and the estate are bought by industrialist Odo van Vloten. He decides to keep the estate De Duno with its magnificent views across the river Rhine, but sells the land of the model farm to Dirk Frans Wilhelmi in 1915.

Wilhelmi owned a rubber factory. His Heveafabriek was named after the Rubber Tree (Hevea brasiliensis) and produced consumer goods such as tires and rubber boots. Like Van Vloten, Wilhelmi was a social entrepreneur avant la lettre. So in 1916 he founds a model village named Heveadorp (Rubber village). In de following decades this factory village grows to 83 terraced cottages for workers, 14 detached villa's for staff members, a small school, a local shop and a farm (the remnants of Huis ter Aa) . Most buildings were designed in a romantic English vernacular style in red brick with thatched roofs and high chimneys. Each block was named after one of the Indonesian Islands: Celebes, Sumatra, Java and Borneo. Here the most important rubber plantations were located where Dutch industrialists procured their rubber.

The sloping terrain was terraced to aid development. The workers cottages are built north of the factory site, whilst the villa's are mostly concentrated on the lower slope near the river Rhine. Between the main factory site -on a high flat terrace- and the harbour on the Rhine, more factory buildings were located on a narrow strip between the road and the Seelbeek brook. The present village of Doorwerth higher up on the moraine crest came into existence from 1923 onwards with the building of a new through road connecting Kievitsdel and Westerbouwing. So at present the village of Doorwerth is located north of Heveadorp, whereas it used to be located near the castle at the foot of the moraine crest.

Heveadorp was a typical factory village with the production site at the heart of the layout. Although English in appearance, the set-up was more inspired by German examples, for instance by Krupp in Essen rather than by the Garden City Movement. Garden city ideals were condensed into a romantic notion of rural living to enhance the lives of factory workers. This was mainly expressed in the architecture of the buildings and the presence of front and back gardens. Heveadorp lacks any Unwinesque spatial devices.

Heveadorp around 1935, with at its heart the large rubber plant (F). To the east the Seelbeek (S). In the well pond (W) where this brook rises one of the farms added to the manor of Doorwerth once stood. The factory village (V) was developed along a per-existing country lane. To the north the primary school (P) was built, whilst further south a technical school (T) was located. At the mouth of the brook a watermill (M) stood near a small harbour (H) and a Turnpike station (TS). The model farm Huis ter Heide (HtH) was maintained with the vegetable gardens further up the slope.

As Heveadorp is located with the area that saw heavy fighting during the Battle of Arnhem, the model village suffered badly. It was partly rebuilt in original style between 1948 and 1955. After the Hevea factory was taken over by another rubber producer Vredestein plans were made to expand the village. Instead new housing was built in Doorwerth with modernist blocks nestling in a former forest -a type of urbanisation inspired by the German Waldsiedlung. By the end of the 1970s the factory is considered no longer viable, as it is located on a sloping site, with little room for expansion, isolated from main roads and railways. The factory is dismantled and from 1984 the site is redeveloped for housing. These houses are typical of the period and very bland in comparison to the original model village. Heveadorp thus ceases to be a factory village and is made an out-quarter of Doorwerth. In 2010 Heveadorp officially becomes the sixth village within the Municipality of Renkum complete with its own postcode. The village now has 780 residents.

At present the old factory village makes up only a small section of the village of Heveadorp. The model farm was incorporated into the factory buildings in the 1960s, so now only the vegetable gardens remain (as a plant nursery).History was wiped out as was the norm in 1980s Netherlands...