Mijlpalenroute(Milestone Route)

The Hoeksche Waard is one of the South Holland islands and has been titled National Landscape for several years. The clay polders have been used by farmers for centuries. On the grass-covered peatland, farmers graze their cattle. Polders, dikes, creeks and reed collars characterize this special landscape.

.The Hoeksche Waard is named after the village Houcke at the place where Puttershoek is located. The hamlet probably consisted of some cabins, inhabited by fishermen. The name could refer to the rather sharp curve that the dike, which was located around the Groote Waard (also called South Holland Waard), makes here.As a village it was covered by the artisan glory Hoecke, already mentioned in 1363. The old village may have been very small, but it was large by giving its name to the present island.

.The route you cycle from Strijensas to Puttershoek is an old mail route. In the time of Napoleon, this route was given the status "Route Départementale" (Route Départementale), a kind of provincial road.These routes were used by Rijkswaterstaat in the 2nd half of the nineteenth century as a means to maintain the roads. In the province of South Holland they chose cast iron.On old cards from that time the posts were usually marked with the letters MP, which according to the legend means milestone. The Dutch Milestone was then a synonym for kilometers.

.During this cycle route you will encounter some of these cast iron poles. There are two types: mileage and hectometers.Each kilometer pole has on four sides a two-digit mile indication and indicates the distance to the provincial capital of The Hague.Rijkswaterstaat not only placed the poles, but would also have been responsible for the design. Between the mileage poles are hectometers that are also made of cast iron.On one side they are provided with the relief distance, where the mileage (two digits) is placed above the hectometer size (one digit).

.It's really special that along this route so many hecto- and kilometer poles have been preserved!This is why part of the poles was restored in 2021 and they have the colour they had in the second half of the 18th century.For example, there are still poles found by excavation, so you may encounter more poles on the way than indicated in the leaflet.