The village of Noordscheschut owes its name to the lock (‘schut’ in Dutch) that was plac…
The village of Noordscheschut owes its name to the lock (‘schut’ in Dutch) that was placed here in 1766 in the Noordse Opgaande, also known as the ‘Noord’. A ‘schut’ is a door that is used for pushing up or stemming water. This old lock was situated directly to the south of the current lock. In this area, a small working class community arose, while small farmhouses were mainly built along the ‘Noord’. On his way to Nieuw Amsterdam/Veenoord, Vincent van Gogh went past this place on a tow barge. When Van Gogh visited Drenthe in 1883, the lock had already been replaced with a wooden lock, a novelty in those days, on the site of the current lock. The lockkeeper at the time was Jacob Harkema, who also owned a shop and a café on the north side of the lock. Next to Harkema's shop and café, a pub and baker's shop could also be found. Nowadays, this is Café Troost. In the days of Van Gogh, the place therefore offered enough entertainment.
Today, a statue of a traditional lockkeeper is standing close to the lock, in memory of the lockkeepers who had to operate the lock with their hands and muscle power.
Quote Van Gogh:
“This time I write to you from a very remote corner of Drenthe, where I arrived after an endless journey in the tow barge across the heathland.”
