The old church of Waddinxveen

This is said to be the only known existing picture of the village church of Waddinxveen. If you look on the map of the Waddinxveen area shown further down on this blog you can see the location where this church stood until 1838, marked by a cross on the section of land between the Kerkweg (Church Road) and the Dorrekade. This version of the picture is from the book "Omme 't woort Gods" (About God's Word) by C. Neven, 1978. However, this picture, which was drawn by Anna C. Brouwer, was first published in "De Nederlandse Stad- en Dorp-Beschrijver" (A Description of Dutch Towns and Villages) by L. van Oleffen and R. Bakker, 1793

A beautiful old school photo

This beautiful old photo dates back to 1910 and shows pupils from the Roman Catholic Primary School in the town of Nieuwveen.
Hendrikus Bartholomeus Janmaat (1904-1985), son of Theodorus Janmaat and Margaretha Kaptijn: located in the front row, fourth from the left.
Petronella Cecilia Maria Janmaat (1899-1982), daughter of Theodorus Janmaat and Margaretha Kaptijn: To easily locate Petronella start with the teacher on the right hand side of the picture at shoulder height and select the second girl to the left!

The St. Nicolas Church in Nieuwveen

This view is of the Roman Catholic Sint Nicolaaskerk (St. Nicolas Church) in the town of Nieuwveen around 1895, as seen from the "Dorpsstraat" (literally: Village Street), when you enter Nieuwveen from the direction of the village of Vrouweakker. This church was first used on the 19th August 1867, however, the church tower was still missing as money was in short supply. The church and the adjoining Presbytery were built by the carpenter-contracter Henricus Janmaat (1827-1912) from Nieuwveen for the sum of 36800 Dutch Guilders.

Prior to 1865 the people of Nieuwveen did not have their own local Roman Catholic Parish. As early as 1862 an approach was made to the bishop of Haarlem to allow Nieuwveen to have their own Parish with their own Church. Permission for this was finally granted in 1865. While, as noted earlier, the church was built in 1867, the tower was not added until 20 years later in 1887. The story has it that the bishop of Haarlem came to visit Nieuwveen in 1886 but could not find the church because there was no church-tower. This apparently so embarassed the local pastor that he decided to personally finance the construction of the church-tower, at a cost of 10770 Dutch Guilders. The cost of the church-bells was to be borne by the parishioners.

The top photo shows a close up view of the St. Nicolaas Church in Nieuwveen as it was around the year 1900. Note the Presbytery on the left and the gate leading to the cemetery on the right hand side of the church.