Bennekom - Archaeology and History

Archaeology and History

Near the village are several burial mounds (tumuli) dating from the Middle Bronze Age. In 2006, an archaeological survey in the grounds of the former Bennekom hospital just south of the A12 motorway brought to light the remains of a farmstead and granary dating from the Early Iron Age about 800–500 BC. Within and near the village were also the remains of settlement from the Iron Age. West of the centre were traces of a farming settlement from the 2nd to 5th Century.

Reclamation of the marshes west of the village probably began in the 11th Century. A route across the marshes is reflected in the name of a farmstead, Bruxvoord, ‘Bridge Ford’.

In the Middle Ages, Bennekom had four castles or fortified farmsteads: Harslo Castle about 2 km (1 mi) west of the village; Nergena Castle just west of highway N781; Hoekelum Castle north of motorway A12; and the Ham north-west of the village.

Harslo and the Ham guarded routes across the marshes between the Duchy of Guelderland and the Bishopric of Utrecht, which were sometimes at war. Both are now farms, Only the gatehouse of Harslo Castle remains. The Netherlands Institute for Varietal Testing of Arable Crops was built in 1952 on the site of Nergena in the style of the country house that succeeded to the castle.

Hoekelum remains as a moated country house. The grounds are used for various events including Bennekom’s gymkana on Ascension Day.

During Napoleonic times (1811–1817), Bennekom became an independent municipality with its office in the back of the church, which remained partitioned off, later as a library, until the restoration of 2006. At that time, church towers were appropriated by the civil municipality and so remain. The civil power is responsible for maintenance of the tower clock, the tower and the church bells. A bell rings at midday, an echo of the Pre-Reformation Angelus for midday prayer. A bell rings too while funerals process from one of the churches to the graveyard. Until the 19th Century, Bennekom remained a farming village. With the railway station of Ede-Wageningen (1845) and the steam tram from there to Bennekom and Wageningen (1883), the village became a tourist resort with several hotels and many guest houses.

In 1887, many of the church council and congregation followed the minister, the Rev. E. Eisma in the ‘Doleantie’ movement, which gave rise to the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. They rejected the authority of the synod, which dispatched a loyal minister, the Rev. K.F. Kreuzberg, from Arnhem for the service on 27 February, causing tumult in the church. The same happened on 5 June but Eisma had already begun his service. On 19 June, the militia was called to the village to keep from the church the followers of Eisma, who then held his service in the open air. The census of 1891 shows that 56,6% of the population had moved to the Reformed Churches and 41% remained loyal to the Netherlands Reformed Church.