Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel 2

I arrived at the shopping center in Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel thinking I had enough time to get my datestamp from the post office in the Jumbo supermarket. When I looked at the screen at the busstop I realized I had only six minutes to go inside, get the datestamp, take a photo and return to the bus. I had to run for the bus. The driver said to me I was lucky to have caught the bus because she was two minutes late. I did not object to that.

Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel is a town and former municipality in the province of South Holland. Since 2010 it is part of the new municipality of Zuidplas. It is situated along the Hollandsche IJssel river, across from the town Ouderkerk aan den IJssel. Within the boundaries of this municipality lies the lowest point of the Netherlands: 6,76 m below Amsterdam Ordnance Datum (mean summer sea level in Amsterdam).

Nieuwerkerk was probably first formed circa 1250. The first reference to "Nuwekerke" is from 1282 when Count Floris V of Holland loaned the land between Kralingen and Gouda to a certain Traveys of Moordrecht. Another reference is from 22 January 1317 when Count William III of Holland sold the fiefdoms Capelle and Nieuwerkerk to John III van de Werve, Lord of Hovorst for 325 Dutch Pounds.

The original old village formed on a mount between shallow lakes. These lakes were the result of peat harvesting. In 1839 the first one was drained and made into a polder, the current Zuidplaspolder, and in 1866, the Alexanderpolder was made.

The railway between Rotterdam and Gouda was built in 1855 and resulted in the growth of the village. Other periods of rapid development followed after the Second World War and in the early 1980s.

During the North Sea Flood of 1953, a dike along that river broke, and the mayor of Nieuwerkerk successfully managed to plug the hole by ordering shipper Arie Evegroen to navigate his grain barge Twee Gebroeders (Two Brothers) into it.

City/town:         Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel

Municipality:     Zuidplas

Area:                18,47 km² (Zuidplas 62,46 km²)

Population:       21.535 (2018) (Zuidplas 42.767, 1 January 2019)

Website:           zuidplas.nl

Post office

Jumbo Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel Reigerhof

Reigerhof 113

2914 KE  NIEUWERKERK AAN DEN IJSSEL

jumbo.com/nieuwerkerk-a~d-ijssel-reigerhof/

facebook.com/Jumbo.Nieuwerkerk.aan.den.IJssel

Date sent: 14 July 2017

Date postmark: 14 July 2017

Date received: 15 July 2017

Number of days: 1

Envelope in collection: 229