West-Vlieland / West-Flylân / Westeyende

An article in Nieuwe Leidsche Courant | 1972 | 31 oktober 1972 | pagina 7 writes about a fragment of an old baptismal font, originally from the disappeared church of West-Vlieland, that is now present among the blocks that form a dike: It is a thorn in the side of Jan Houter, manager of hotel-restaurant Kaap Oost on Vlieland, that part of the baptismal font of the old church of West-Vlieland has simply been used as a dike stone. He has persuaded a few members of parliament, who were staying with him, to try to make this historic piece of stone, from a village that was swallowed by the sea in 1732, available for a renovated museum that will be set up in the Tromphuis. The dyke, which protects the island on the Wadden side, also contains carved stones with the weapons of old Vlielander families. Fortunately, they are at the top, says Mr Houter, when rubble was dumped, one apparently wanted to decorate the dike with them. But he hopes that the objects will nevertheless end up at the exhibition of former Vlieland that he wants to open next year in the Trompshuis. [NB: the Museum Tromp's Huys is a museum now oped in Oost-Vlieland, but we have not been able to locate a font in its holdings] On Fri, 4 Feb 2022 at 15:00, Pol Herman wrote: West-Vlieland (Westeynde) Lost Sint-Willibrordus church Village disappeared by inundation, last inhabitants left in 1736. The first stone church in West Vlieland dates from the Middle Ages and was dedicated to Saint Willibrord. In the smaller East Vlieland, there was a chapel dedicated to Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of merchants and seafarers. In the nineteenth century, there was approximately 27 m of water depth on the site of West-Vlieland and fishermen still regularly retrieved building blocks from their nets. Source : Nieuwe Leidsche Courant | 1972 | 31 oktober 1972 | pagina 7 It is a thorn in the side of Jan Houter, manager of hotel-restaurant Kaap Oost on Vlieland, that part of the baptismal font of the old church of West-Vlieland has simply been used as a dike stone. He has persuaded a few members of parliament, who were staying with him, to try to make this historic piece of stone, from a village that was swallowed by the sea in 1732, available for a renovated museum that will be set up in the Tromphuis. The dyke, which protects the island on the Wadden side, also contains carved stones with the weapons of old Vlielander families. Fortunately, they are at the top, says Mr Houter, when rubble was dumped, one apparently wanted to decorate the dike with them. But he hopes that the objects will nevertheless end up at the exhibition of former Vlieland that he wants to open next year in the Trompshuis." A further communication to BSI from Pol Herman (e-mail of 11 March 2024) informs: "Because the dyke of Vlieland, in which the fragment of the baptismal font was walled up, will be raised to withstand the higher sea water levels (works start in April 2024), I did a last attempt to find the font. Dirk Bruin, a local amateur archaeologist helped me. It appears that all historically relevant stones had already been extricated from the dyke in 1982. The provenance of these sculpted stones remains unknown, and some experts even suggested that it was demolition rubble of a building in Belgium, that got lost among the Belgian construction stones for the dyke. Instead of being used in the local museum Tromps Huis, they were stored outside, and no one looked after them. They were shipped to the island of Texel in January 1989, to be used in a museum at Texel. And there, all traces seem to get lost. In annexed documents [cf. ImagesArea], you will see some pictures of the stones. I do not recognize a font. All people that I contacted doubt if there really was a fragment of a baptismal font. They suspect it was a myth deliberately created by the director of Tromps Huis, who had a reputation of being a fantasist, and had a rather contentious relationship with authorities and fellow historians. I will stop searching."