Qualla: Den Hulst

Den Hulst: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ni'jluuseger, CC BY-SA 3.0. Locals do not pronounce it Den Hulst. They say Nulst, eliding the article, the way a place name softens with daily use. The hamlet that goes by both names stretches along the provincial road N377 in central Overijssel like a ribbon laid down on flat farmland. Drive through and you might not notice you have entered or left it. But underneath that motorway, almost exactly along its trajectory, used to run a canal that carried the peat of the Dutch east toward the urban hearths of the west, and for most of the 19th century, that canal was the reason Den Hulst existed at all.

Read more: Den Hulst on Qualla

Image: Ni'jluuseger | CC BY-SA 3.0

Den Hulst: Along the Vaort

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dekkers, Ger (Fotograaf), CC BY-SA 4.0. When Willem Jan baron Van Dedem began cutting his Dedemsvaart canal westward from Hasselt in the autumn of 1809, Den Hulst was a cluster of twelve houses on the flat land north of Nieuwleusen. By 1811 the channel had been dug as far east as the Oosterhuizer field, about seven kil...

Read more: Den Hulst on Qualla

Image: Dekkers, Ger (Fotograaf) | CC BY-SA 4.0

Den Hulst: The Mansion That Moved

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dekkers, Ger (Fotograaf), CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1821, Van Dedem did something unusual. He had a country house called Rollecate that had been built around 1654-1655 in Vollenhove, on the other side of the province. He took it apart and rebuilt it in Den Hulst, on a spot where he could see his canal from the windows. Nearly a...

Read more: Den Hulst on Qualla

Image: Dekkers, Ger (Fotograaf) | CC BY-SA 4.0

Den Hulst: Union

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alf van Beem, CC0. In 1904, the Van den Berg brothers opened a small factory in Den Hulst making bicycles. They called it Union. Within a couple of decades it was the largest employer in the merged Nieuwleusen-Den Hulst area, with sidelines in building materials, lumber, and eventually mopeds. Ther...

Read more: Den Hulst on Qualla

Image: Alf van Beem | CC0

Den Hulst: When the Canal Disappeared

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dekkers, Ger (Fotograaf), CC BY-SA 4.0. The Dedemsvaart did not die in a single moment. After the Second World War, lorries took the freight that had once moved by barge, and by the 1960s long stretches of the canal were being filled in and paved over for motorways. In 1969 the Den Hulst section was filled. The sand ca...

Read more: Den Hulst on Qualla

Image: Dekkers, Ger (Fotograaf) | CC BY-SA 4.0

Den Hulst: Nieuwleusen-Noord

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Original uploader was Debot at nl.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Officially, Den Hulst no longer exists as its own settlement. It is Nieuwleusen-noord, the north end of a village that absorbed it. The old Ommerdiek road that connected the two halves was renamed Burgemeester Backxlaan. Between the two halves, sports fields fill what used to be ...

Read more: Den Hulst on Qualla

Image: Original uploader was Debot at nl.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0