Winterswijk

Winterswijk is a municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands.

Winterswijk (Winterswiek, Wenters) is a town with a population of some 30,000 in the Achterhoek which lies in the most eastern part of the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. It was also known as Winethereswick, Winriswic or Wenterswic. Wic or the Anglo Saxon wich means the living place of a certain person. The person would likely have been called Wenether, Winitar or Winter.

Founded around 1000 AD it remained an isolated farming community until 1830 when the road from Borken to Zutphen via Winterswijk and Groenlo was built. Around 1840 many emigrated to America — Michigan in particular. After 1870 the town became a centre for textiles, such as spinning and weaving and indeed the Tricot fabriek employed a large proportion of the local population in its heyday. In 1878 the train line to Zutphen was built primarily for the textile industry, which was set up by Jan Willink. Some of the families such as the Willinks have lived there since 1284.