Orvelte

History

The village was first mentioned in 1362 as "in Oervelde", and probably means "other side of the (heath) field". Orvelte is an esdorp which developed in the Middle Ages on the road from Westerbork to Zweeloo. It may have been a daughter settlement of Westerbork. The farm Bruntingerhof was built between 1560 and 1650, and is the oldest extant farm in Drenthe. It used to be located in the hamlet of Bruntinge, but was moved to Orvelte in the 1960s. In 1917, a consortium of textile traders founded a flax factory in Orvelte along the Oranjekanaal. They appointed the Flemish straw flax buyer HF Reyntjens as director. After his death in 1952, he was succeeded by flax technician AT Krijnen, who wrote a history of the factory. The factory closed in 1968. In 1967, the village was designated a protected site. It became a museum village and attempts were made to return the village to the layout of 1830. The brink (village square) has been restored and historical farms and barns from other villages which were scheduled to be demolished, have been purchased and moved to Orvelte. It was built to show what recently excavated remains in Hijken may have looked like. The site is now managed by Staatsbosbeheer. In September 2009, remains of a mammoth were found at the Oranjekanaal. The excavations found a one-meter tusk, a few molars and bones. Remains were also found in the immediate vicinity in 1991. These finds probably belong together. The jaw that was found in 1991 was missing two molars and the two molars previously found wer an exact match.