Chapter 5 the Historical and Geographical Incidence of Short Wall Anchors

Chapter 5 The Historical and Geographical Incidence of Short Wall Anchors Kijkoveral (‘Look everywhere’) (Name of Fort and Settlement, on an island in the mouth of a tributary of the Mazaruni River, Guyana Temminck Groll 2002, 395) This chapter considers the when and where of short wall anchors ( SWA ). It addresses the research questions concerning distribution and diffusion using theoretical approaches to style, typology and classification, which will provide a basis for the how (i.e. transmission) and the why of SWA . It begins by taking forward the examination of the spread of the wall anchor technique introduced in section 4.1, returning to the map of the use of short wall anchors to examine the relationship between where the technique is found, and the place from which it came. Animation 4.1 revealed the spread of the use of short wall anchors over the globe. Animation 4.2 presented this information in slightly greater detail, and showed the location of the earliest known buildings using short wall anchors in the Netherlands, at Ammersoyen Castle (building 2845, figure 5.1) and a house at Oudegracht 175, Utrecht (building 2486, figure 5.2) (Janse, 1986, 26), and the contemporary Spijker in Gent (building 2487, figure 5.3), all possibly as early as the 13th century. At this most general level, the initial spread out from the Low Countries can be observed. This is summarised in table 5.1 (page 153). The early spread was followed by an expansion into the peripheries of Asia, Africa and the Americas, together with greater depth of penetration in Europe. This is summarised in table 5.2 (page 154). The spread from the lower-lying Low Countries to the hillier (and French-speaking) part of the Southern Netherlands is evidenced by Eglise St.e Marie-Madeleine (building 1319, figure 5.4) in Epinois, Hainault-Thuin, a building which dates in part from 1100 and the 14th century Ancienne Ferme de Fremont, Loverval, Hainault-Charleroi (building 1181). Hainault (Comté de Hainaut or Graafschap Henegouwen ) 152 Table 5.1 Table showing earliest occurances of short wall anchor construction in Europe. First Building (surviving/known) number SWA building Germany late 13th Century #2640 Denmark late 14th century #2611 Estonia c. 1400 #1074 England 1420 #238 Latvia late 15th century #2854 Luxembourg 1500-9 #2503 Sweden 1525 #2667 Finland 1556-63 #2658 France 1559 #1759 Norway 1640 #2 covered the area which today is the Belgian province of Hainault, and the southern part of the French département of Nord. The medieval province of Hainault is on the fringe of the Low Countries (Barron 1995, 2), but until 1447 united with them as part of the Burgundian state (Moore 1988, xii). However, the earliest uses observed in France are not in the former Hainault, but further to the west, in Aise in the former Picardy, another province of the Southern Netherlands. The Royal court building (Chancellerie ), Château-Thierry, Aisne (building 1759) was built in 1559 at the direction of Henri II of France. The Pas de Calais, although Dutch-speaking in the early Middle Ages, had become French-speaking by the 16th century. The next observed buildings in France are in Bergues, in the northern part of Nord: a house (building 1747) dating from 1625 and the Mont de Piété (a papally authorised finance institution providing free or low cost loans, building 1740) dating from 1630. Manoir la Rivière, Neufchâtel-Hardelot, in the Pas de Calais (building 1811) dates from 1578. One outlier is Hôtel Gauthiot d’Ancier also called 153 Table 5.2 Table showing occurances of short wall anchor construction outside Europe. Country Company Beginning End First Building (surviving/ number known) SWA building Canada - 1694 #1937 Guyana66 WIC (from 1596 1803 1743 #2517 1616) Indonesia67 VoC 1611 1942 1611-7 #2747 Japan68 VoC 1609 1858 1639 #1170 Malaysia69 VoC 1606 179570 1650 #1106 Netherlands WIC 1634 present 1700 #543 Antilles71 South VoC 1620 1795-1806 1767 #1888 Africa72 Sri Lanka73 VoC 1602 1796 1656 #2082 Surinam74 WIC and 1667 1700-1722 1693 #1962 others Taiwan75 VoC 1623 1661 1629 #1104 USA76 WIC 1609 1664 1657-67 #671 66 Kloosters 1997, 61; Temminck Groll 2002, 397. 67 Greig, 1987, 13; Temminck Groll 2002, 126, 134-5. 68 Greig, 1987, 13, 158; Temminck Groll 2002, 268; Yamada 2002, 275. 69 Greig, 1987, 255; Klatter-Folmer and Kroon 1997, 9; Temminck Groll 2002, 277-8. 70 The Dutch regained power 1818-24. 71 Roos 1979, 5. 72 Temminck Groll 2002, 93, Worden et al 1998, 86, Walton 1987b, 6. 73 Greig, 1987, 13; Kelegama and Madawela 2002, 20. 74 Temminck Groll 2002, 284, 381-2. 75 Greig, 1987, 204; Temminck Groll 2002, 274. 76 Meeske 1998, 13-4; Schrire and Merwick, 1991, 11; Blackburn and Piwonka 1988, 79. 154 also called the oratoire Saint-Pierre-Fourier (building 1774) perhaps as early as 1578, in Grey, Haute-Saône, far to the south of any other short wall anchor constructions in France. It is, however, in Burgundy - and thus politically linked to the Southern Netherlands until 1483 when by the Treaty of Arras it passed to France. Animation 5.1 shows that the buildings of the Francophone expansion are later than those of the Netherlandish homeland area, and, as distance from the Belgian border increases, more likely to be in single settlements, or small clusters of settlements, rather than diffused across the landscape. These are exclusively in Hainault and Picardy: no further examples were seen in Burgundy. One cluster is in Pas de Calais, particularly in the villages of Neufchâtel-Hardelot, Tingry and Samer. Another is in the north of Nord, with the villages of Bergues, Quaëdypre and Pitgam. Occurrences are more scattered in the south of Nord, but Houdain-lez-Bavay has a group of six. A similar group is found at Noyon (Oise) and surrounding villages. This part of France alternated between French and Habsburg control. In the seventeenth century, when the first short wall anchor building (building 1814) was constructed, the town was French. The earliest use of short wall anchors I observed in Luxembourg was on building on La Marché-aux-Poissons, in the city of Luxembourg itself which dates from 1500-1509 (building 2503). It may have been built directly after the much of the city was destroyed by fire in 1509 (Yegles-Becker 2002, 19). Politically, the Duchy of Luxembourg became part of the Burgundian realm in 1443 and, with Belgium, became part of the Habsburg empire in 1477 (Blom and Lamberts 2006, 88, 114). Partly the land today is the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and partly the Luxembourg region of Belgium. Linguistically and culturally (today French, German and the German dialect Lëtzebuergesch are all official languages of Luxembourg) the area is linked with both France, French-Belgium and Germany, and to a lesser extent with Flanders. The Moselle links Luxembourg with both Germany and France, but the presence of short wall anchor buildings here is probably attributable to the movement of workers within the Spanish and later Austrian Netherlands. Almost all the buildings using short wall anchors observed 155 were in the city of Luxembourg, which was developing as a key military stronghold. German use of short wall anchors (animation 5.2) is best understood as continuation of the southern and eastern expansion of the use of the technique. Rivers of trade (particularly in grain and timber and wine), language and religion (both Lutheran Christianity and Judaism) ran down from Germany to the Low Countries (Smith 1973, 23; Israel 1985, 154). The four earliest seen uses of short wall anchors in Germany illustrate this. The bell tower (building 2640, figure 5.5) in Bramel, Wesermünde, Germany (c. 6km east of Bremerhavn) where the lower, fleur-de-lys anchors may be as early as 1250 perhaps reflect coastal trading, or perhaps the migration of Dutch people in the medieval period. A building from 1355 in Mönchstraße, Lübeck, Germany (building 1879), the Marienfelder hof, Lemgo (building 2306) constructed 1323-1525, and the west wing of the ‘Alte Haus’ of the Fürstenhof, Wismar (building 2264, figure 5.6) from 1512-3, ‘Der Schütting’ (Guild hall) Bremen from 1565 (building 2408) are all in towns of the Hanseatic league. The Town hall, Bad Münstereifel (building 2312) refaçaded in 1557, c. 85km south-east of Maastricht - halfway to Koblenz - is the first building observed in a German town without Hanseatic connections. The Schloß, Reinbeck from the 1570s (building 2230) is the earliest example of a major rural building using short wall anchors. Further use in Germany includes churches, urban houses, particularly high status houses, warehouses and civic buildings in Hanseatic and other major urban centres (including Bad Münstereifel, Bremen, Cuxhaven, Lübeck, and Oldernburg), together with major rural buildings. Minor rural buildings do not occur until the 19th century, near Cuxhaven (buildings 2118 and 2119). Gjorslev Castle, Zeeland (building 2611), founded between in the late 14th century is the earliest example of a building using short wall anchors which I have found in Denmark. Other early examples are also military and noble: Dragsholm Castle (1200-1699, building 2614), was the bishop of Roskilde’s castle. Egeskov Castle (1550, building 2615), was built by Frands Brockenhuus, ambassador and Secretary of the Danish Chancellery (Kannegaard 2002; anon. 2008). A manor house at Borreby (1556, building 2612) was built by Johan Friis, Chancellor to Christian III 156 (anon. 1994). Danish kings in the late middle ages and early modern period actively promoted the connection between the Low Countries and their Danish and Norwegian territories: Dutch agricultural and building expertise was brought in. Architects of note, including Hans Vredeman de Vries worked in København, and the van Steenwinckel family were employed in important artistic positions until 1700.

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