This year Hilversum celebrates its 600th anniversary and the city sparkles like never before. But, whoa. Wait a minute: what happened on March 4, 600 years ago? City or village, what is the situation? Who were those throwers actually? Will the real Hilversum please stand up now and was there no Hilversum at all before then? To get you excited about our city, which is about to celebrate its birthday, we will take you in a series of articles to the Hilversum of yesterday, today and the future.
Sheep and buckwheat
Certainly until 1650, Hilversum was mainly an agricultural village. The farmers (Erfgooiers) let sheep and cows graze on the communal heath and meadows. Erfgooiers grew rye, barley and later also buckwheat. Buckwheat? Yes, the buckwheat, the grains of which are still in our municipal coat of arms. In the winter, yarn was spun on the farms for the wool weaving mills in the 'big' city of Naarden. That used to be the most important place in the Gooi. The flocks of sheep on the heath provided the wool for spinning cloth.
Goose Boat
An important development for Hilversum was the connection to the national water network. In 1625, a group of Amsterdam residents received a reclamation concession from the States of Holland for a strip of land in the Gooi. On the designated strip of land, excavation of what would become the Gooise Vaart began. The excavated sand was used to build the Amsterdam canal belt. The Gooise Vaart connected Hilversum with the 's Gravelandse Vaart, allowing ships to sail from Amsterdam to Hilversum. This allowed the village to transport the raw materials and products of the textile industry more easily than over the dirt roads.
Textiles and carpet
The foundation for the transition to an industrial village was thus laid. First he worked in the textile industry as an employee for Amsterdam. Later the companies in Hilversum became independent. Various innovations in the field of spinning and weaving even gave Hilversum international recognition. A large textile and carpet industry emerged. In 1772 there were already 42 manufacturers in Hilversum.
Connection to the track
The next big step: Hilversum got a station and connection to the national rail network. Many wealthy Amsterdammers who had summer homes in Hilversum now continued to live in Hilversum permanently. After all, they could now take the train to work. This is how the first commuters were born. Hilversum was also suddenly interesting for industry. In an article by Steengoed Gooi, historian Pieter Hoogenraad says: “The land was cheap, so were the workers and they did not have a big mouth, like in Amsterdam. Hilversum received factories for fireplaces, paint, medicines and condoms, among other things.”
NSF
Media city? That became Hilversum with the arrival of the Dutch Signal Equipment Factory (NSF). Due to the First World War, shipowners in the Netherlands were no longer able to obtain signaling devices for their ships. A group of shipowners therefore decided to start their own factory to make signaling equipment: The Dutch Signaling Equipment Factory. Hilversum was considered the ideal location for this. The village was close to the sales areas of Amsterdam and Utrecht, there was sandy soil on which people could immediately build and there was plenty of space on the heath for a large factory. The NSF started in 1918 at Groest 106-108. The old weaving mills and carpet factories turned out to be suitable for manufacturing signaling equipment. But after three years, the NSF moved to the new factory on the Jan van der Heydenstraat on the heath, where there was much more space.
Radio equipment
In the past, when you bought a radio, you bought a box of parts that you had to assemble yourself. There were no broadcasts then, but you could receive signals. The NSF saw a market in this and started producing ready-made radio sets for the home in the mid-20s. But people also needed something to listen to, so the NSF broadcast music from the factory grounds on Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons to stimulate sales of their radios.
Broadcasters
The Netherlands was already in the middle of pillarization at the time and each pillar wanted to make its own broadcasts at some point. To do that, a lot of technical knowledge was needed and that knowledge was at the NSF. The compartmentalized broadcasters therefore broadcast from the NSF factory where they rented the studio. When the broadcasters wanted to broadcast more, they decided to build their own studios that were furnished by the NSF. The factory also provided technical support in the studios. This resulted in all broadcasters being based in Hilversum, because if there was a problem in the studio, someone could come straight from the factory. From that moment on, Hilversum has been the media city of the Netherlands.
Sources:
Historical Circle Albertus Perk (various articles), Dudok Architecture Center