History of the municipality

Origin of the name of the municipality

The municipal name Tytsjerksteradiel is derived from the village name of Tytsjerk. In 1392 this village was called Thiatzercka, a personal name, possibly named after one Tiete. Tytsjerk = the church of Tiete. The municipal name originated in the Middle Ages, when there were grietenijen instead of municipalities.

Why Tytsjerk was chosen to give its name to the county is not certain. Perhaps we should look for the importance in the hydraulic location of the village. The grietenijen , founded between 1100-1300 were an association of villages in a water board context. The drainage of the fertile peat bogs was probably done by the villages individually. But the drainage of the excess water had to be arranged jointly. For our grietij this concerned the discharge of the water from the low eastern part via the low western lands to the Middelzee and Tytsjerk was strategically located in this respect.

Elevation

Tytsjerksteradiel's clay and peat soil lies below N.A.P. Especially the western part of the municipality lies low, with the exception of Trynwâlden with Ryptsjerk. Because of this low position, people here also used to fight a lot of battles with the water.

In the flood of February 1825 the salt water in this municipality penetrated as far as the village of Earnewâld. The water there had then risen so much on February 8 that it stood up to 130 cm above the flat land. Furthermore, the swollen inland water had forced its way through the villages of Suwâld, Garyp and Sumar up to the Rijksstraatweg. The lands below Wyns were also flooded. The sandy grounds are much higher, here the ground is locally up to 3 to 3.5 meters above N.A.P. On the higher grounds the wooded banks occur.

Ancient habitation

Tytsjerksteradiel has an ancient history of occupation. Through research, quite a lot is known about habitation since the last ice age. In the vicinity of the Burgumer Mar, some archaeological finds have previously been made that point to very old habitation from the Stone Age.

Stone utensils of reindeer hunters have been recovered. The next inhabitants were hunter-gatherers of the Middle Stone Age. These people hunted deer and wild pigs, among other things. They also fished and collected fruits and tubers.
Much later, people lived from peat extraction, fishing, agriculture (not only animal husbandry, but also arable farming) and hunting. The scoop net, scythe and hunting horn in the coat of arms of Tytsjerksteradiel indicate this.

Historical positioning

Very little is known about Tytsjerksteradiel's early past. Tytsjerksteradiel was one of the eleven grietenijen of the old jurisdiction Oostergo. In the Middle Ages, our municipality, also representing Smallingerland, formed the Leppa with Leeuwarderadeel and Idaarderadeel.

This was a union, which mainly promoted the hydraulic interests of its members. A well-known case in our municipality was the Leppa's interference with the siphon in the Lioedmersdam, the later Burgumerdam.

In the Middle Ages, Fryslân consisted of Oostergo, Westergo and Zevenwouden. Tytsjerksteradiel was located in Oostergo, which consisted of three districts. The core of Oostergo was called the Winninghe (consisting of the two districts the so-called "northern nine" and the "Leppa") and our municipality was again in the middle of this. The village of Wyns would have given its name to the entire core of Oostergo, the Winninghe. At Wyns the joint judges met as the supreme court. This was the supreme court, hearing appeals for certain cases. Why did such a small village have the supreme court of the Winninghe? Probably it was because of its accessibility, fairly central and fairly easily accessible across the Dokkumer Ie.

Monasteries

In the 12th century, the Regular Canons founded the Bergklooster (or Barraconvent) at Burgum on Kloosterlaan. This monastery was dedicated to "Sinte Nicolaas. This monastery was founded in the 12th century and had an important function regarding the peat extraction in the municipality of Tytsjerksteradiel.

The other two monasteries known to our community were women's monasteries and stood at Bartlehiem (Bethlehem) under Aldtsjerk and Sigerswâld (Sinaï monastery) under Garyp.

The grietman

Before the introduction of the municipal law in 1851, our municipality did not have a mayor but a grietman. The grietmen were elected or appointed by rotation through the cooperation of the stadtholder and Provincial States in Friesland.

A document from the year 1242 mentions a Grietman in our municipality for the first time. This concerns the "greetman in Ghetzerka," which is Gytsjerk.

Land use

In the 19th century, most of the land was used as farmland, both pasture and arable. After 1875, the cultivation of potatoes, buckwheat, oats and rye declined sharply. Grassland took its place. By 1940, the old moors had already been completely reclaimed and turned into farmland.

Reclassification

Before the municipal redivision of 1984, the land area of our municipality was larger than it is today. Through a number of border corrections, the municipality ceded the Grote and Kleine Wielen and a piece of the later National Park the Alde Feanen.

Frisian municipal name and place names

By council resolution of October 23, 1986, the use of the Frisian name of the municipality of Tytsjerksteradiel and the Frisian place names was officially established. From then on, the Frisian names were the official names.

In response to alarmed reactions from the people of the municipality, an amended council resolution was passed on June 18, 1987. The biggest change in this proposal was the inclusion of the Dutch names of the villages in lower case on the bowl signs. But in fact nothing changed as far as the October 1986 decision on the use of the Frisian names was concerned.