Winterswijk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Country	Netherlands
Winterswijk

Province	Gelderland
Area (2006)
- Municipality	138.80 km² (53.6 sq mi)
- Land	138.25 km² (53.4 sq mi)
- Water	0.56 km² (0.2 sq mi)
Population (1 January 2007)
- Municipality	29,231
- Density	211/km² (546.5/sq mi)
	Source: CBS, Statline.
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)

Winterswijk is a municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands.

Winterswijk is a town with a population of some 30,000 in the Achterhoek which lies in the most eastern part of the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. Also known as Winethereswick, Winriswic or Wenterswic. Wic or the Anglo Saxon which means the living place of a certain person. The person would likely have been called Wenether, Winitar or Winter. Its geographic location is : Lat. 51°58'23" N; Long. 6°43'16" E.

Founded around 1000 AD it remained an isolated farming community until 1830 when the road from Borken to Zutphen via Winterswijk and Groenlo was built. Around the 1840 many immigrated to America in particular to Michigan. After 1870 the town became a centre for Textiles, such as spinning and weaving and indeed the Trico fabriek employed a large fraction of the local population in its hay day. In 1878 the train line to Zutphen was built primarily for the textile industry, which was set up by Jan Willink. Some of the families such as the Willinks have lived there since 1284