The Pondfarm

Pondfarm

The existence of the Pondfarm.

On the 20th of october 1914, the inhabitants of the village Sint-Juliaan leaved their homes and village as soon as possible by order of the local authority. the inhabitants of the North - ab east side could already see the Germans arriving and they heard the gun balls whistle round her ears. by the afternoon, the genereal exodus started to ypres or to villages in the neighbourhood where family members or acquaintances lived. Many left their properties at home, because they thought that they could return after a couple of days. the next night, the two armies collide with each other. A return came impossible.

Change of the occupier.

1914: Brittons (See book Ieperboog: Battlefield Belguim 10)

24-04-1915: Germans, in July 1917, the Germans strengthened their lines with underground passageways and bunkers. they changed twenty farms into a real mini changed fort. The Pondfarm was one of them. Over here, there where three herman bunkers present, two bunkers on Border house and several underground passageways of the German occupier. The railway behind the Pondfarm supplied them with most of the maerials.

The showers of rain and the violent bombardments changed the enviroment in a sea of stinky, slippery mud.

31-07-1917: Britons, Germans(several days)

03-08-1917: Britons

27-04-1917: Germans

28-09-1918: Belgians (Finally it was definitive recaptured by the Belgian army).

Lieut-Colonel

I am currently researcing 2/5th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers who attacked Pond Farm twice in July/August 1917.

Pondfarm: ypres August 1917

On the 14th of january 1920, a first family dared to return to the village. The rest of the population followed slowly, but certainly. everybody who had the courage to start a new life, did real pioneer work. At the beginning of the reconstruction Cyriel Petillion and Arseen Marant got a message from the mayor and the town clerkt of Langemark: the parochial area would be divided again between Langemark and Zonnebeke. becauseof that, a lot of people preferred to rebuild in Langemark. cyriel and Arseen drew a petition up from all the people who returned, to ask Mgr. the bishop for the preservation of the parish. The application was immediately granted by the diocese. Before the war, Arseen marant lived in the "Prinsenhof", also named Border house. After the war, the farmer of the Pondfarm didn't come back. That's why the owner of the land decided to rebuilt only one farm, and that was the pondfarm! the govermment strived for the rebuilt of all the destroyed areas. Advances for reconstruction were permitted, the people also could obtain advances in nature, such as animals, materials for agriculture, ...

On the Pondfarm, the borders of the land were drawn out by Arseen Marant, with a plough pulled by a horse. First, a wooden shed was built, made of wooden beams that you could find everywhere. Then, a house and later the farmstead followed. the prince court was not rebuilt after the war, the house was built at the Pondfarm. Before the war, the Roeselarestraat was an old clinker road, after the war, the road was verry muddly. At some places it was covered with wooden beams.

Initially, it was prohibited to have copper in possession. In the beginning, ther were a lot of remains of bombshells. the piles were nearly as high as the houses. they were all taken away by the state. later, agents, who were dressed up like citizens, patrolled to look for people wh still tried to collect copper. People burned down the land and then everything that could explode, exploded. sometimes it was as if the war started again. The next day they could pick up hte cartridge cases. The summer of 1921 was terribly hot. because of the heat ther were fires in the unclean areas, especially around the "fortuinhoek".

The land of the gallipoli farm was fallow for a long time. It was used as an ammunition depot and as an explosion place for ammunition. they often let explode gas bombs. the gas went in the direction of the neighbours, because of the wind. Then the neighbours had to stand around the fireplace, because the fire kept the gas at a distance. Most of the cleaning was done by people from outside the municipality. The workers were paid per square meter that they had found. Because iron and copper had a high value, a lot of workers hid a part of the materials that they had found, to sell it to the inhabitants. Many workers dismantled explosives. By doing this, a lot of these people died.

The search for war booty was the most important activity and a source of existence, also for the inhabitants that returned. Then they sowed on places that were cleaned up. Until 1923, these plants were the only ones that the farmers sowed: oats, peas and horse beans. After the war, many people declared that it was impossible to rebuild the village and to fertile the land. These forecasts didn’t come true. Some inhabitants earned a lot of money by selling found war booty. Because the big profit, people drank a lot. A lot of cafés raised up. In “de barrière”, one of these cafés, Cyriel Ghyselen painted the whole front. In the house of the Pondfarm, the same painter reproduced the new builded farmstead on the wall.

Arseen Marant, unmarried, lived there with his sister Marie and his servant Gerard Vermeulen. (until 1960)

After that was the house in 1961 renewed: Frans Butaye-Haghedooren

Luc Butaye and Trees Parrein took over the farm in 1986.

Stijn °1988; Jonas °1991; Karel °1997

After the war, it took a long time before the restoration of the ‘Roeselarestraat’ (streetname) started. Because there were a lot of subsidence’s, they removed the clinkers completely and laid a new street. The inhabitants of the street bought most of the clinkers.

Here and there you still can see the old clinkers, and even on the Pondfarm there is a little road in those clinkers. If those stones could talk, they would tell us a lot about that war. Nowadays, we still find a lot of war materials. Iron slowly rises when it is in the ground, especially after wet seasons.

The found war ammunition was obtained in former days 2 à 3 time the year on by the mine clearance service. For this we must do a report at the police of Langemark and they come do a control firstly or the declaration correct is, afterwards comes the mine clearance service. Since 2003 the police has taken notes of found war ammunition. We got now the admission annually to do a report 1 time the year hence yearly we are able to take a photograph of the munition in the summer. In the month of October during digging the potatoeses and in April - May after ploughing and pulling open the country is hauled up most.

2003-2004

2004-2005

2005-2006

2006-2007