The “Baggergat”

The department began work and looked for a location where sand could be extracted for the project. The extraction site needed to be close to the planned four-lane road, and the sand had to be readily available at the surface. A suitable location was found in the hamlet of Greffelkamp near Didam. Sand extraction began in 1941 and continued until 1943. After the war, part of the “Baggergat” was eventually transformed into a natural swimming pool.

The sand extraction site was situated near the then-existing Bomerskolk. Lodewijk Wenting, owner of the Vincwijk farm on Vincwijcweg, was required to give up some of his land for the motorway’s construction. Before sand extraction could begin, various facilities were put in place, including a narrow-gauge railway used by locomotives to transport sand in lorries, and five pumps that operated day and night to drain water from the pit into a canal.

After the war, the sand pit was repurposed into a natural swimming pool. In 1948, the Department of Public Works drafted plans for the layout of the banks. These included changing rooms, steps, diving boards, and a bicycle storage area on the eastern side. The municipality had already appointed a lifeguard in 1946, as swimming in the “Baggergat” had become increasingly popular. With financial support from the municipality, a swimming club was founded in 1947.

By 1959, the sand pit was still state-owned. The municipality leased the site from the State Property Service to operate it as a public swimming pool. Soon afterwards, the municipality managed to acquire ownership. In 1985, both ownership and management were transferred to the Eastern Gelderland Recreation Board, later the Achterhoek and Liemers Recreation Board. The site was subsequently renamed “Nevelhorstmeer”. Leisurelands is now the current owner, but the beach and swimming facilities have been closed since April 2017.