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Oosterhout (The Netherlands)

Noord-Brabant province

Shipmate Flagchart : http://www.flagchart.net
adopted 11 Sep 1956; design: unknown

Oosterhout municipality
Oosterhout old flag (c.1935)
Oosterhout Coat of Arms

See also:

Oosterhout municipality

Number of inhabitants (1 Jan 2003): 53.132; area: 73,00 km². Settlements: Oosterhout (seat), Baarschot, Den Hout, Dorst, Eind van den Hout, Groenendijk, Heikant, Heistraat, Hespelaar, Oosteind, Seters, Steelhoven, Steenoven, Ter Aalst, Vijfhuizen, Vrachelen.
Flag and Coat of Arms represent the founder of Oosterhout, Willem van Duvenvoorde (1290-1353), who was a distant relative of the Wassenaar family, hence the three "wassenaars" (crescents).

Flag: white with three lying black crescents, placed 2,1.
Adopted 11 Sep 1956 by municipal resolution; design: unknown.

Oosterhout was a Free Territory ("vrijheid"), belonging to the Baronie van Breda. Within its territory there were judicial powers for the Lord of Breda, the Abbey of Thorn, and the Order of the Templars, since 1313 the Order of the Knights of St. John. The main enclave was of the last, which went to the Lord of Breda in 1473. The territory was riddled with small castles of both former Orders, and traces of several of them still remain. In the Middle Ages Oosterhout was on one of the most important connections between the County of Holland and the Duchy of Brabant, just on the Brabant side of the border. In 1288 a strong fortress was built to safeguard the road, which lost its importance by the St. Elizabethflood of 1421, which destroyed the road. The "toren van Strijen" is still present a bit north of Oosterhout city. Oosterhout became a town in 1809 by a Royal Resolution of King Lodewijk Napoleon. Another defensive work, the "Linie van der Hout" was constructed by
Menno van Coehoorn in the 17th century, near Stuivezand.
Source: Prisma-toeristengids Zeeland-Brabant-Limburg, by P.G. Bins, 1965

Oosterhout is honored with 6 nicknames, most if which having to do with food:
"Eerst eten" they say in Oosterhout (let's first eat) - once upon a time the deathpenalty was to be executed. All was ready - but someone said: "Eerst eten!" - after dinner it was found that the culprit had escaped.

Other version: The people of Gilze-Rijen and of Oosterhout both wanted a railway to pass through their municipality; representatives of both went to The Hague. The Oosterhouters: "Eerst eten!" - the Gilze-Rijenaars didn't think food was that important... and got the railwaystation!
Source: Groot Schimpnamenboek van Nederland, by Dirk van der Heide, 1998.
Jarig Bakker, 28 May 2005

Oosterhout old flag (c.1935)

by Jarig Bakker, 28 May 2005
in use c. 1935

According to "Wie, Wat, Waar? 1940", an annual published by the Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad in Nov. 1939, the flag of Oosterhout was: square chequy of red and white; in the canton the municipal arms.
This is a parading flag, used in 1935 at the 750th birthday of 's-Hertogenbosch.
Jarig Bakker, 28 May 2005

Oosterhout Coat of Arms

image from the Oosterhout municipal site.
Granted 16 Jul 1817.

Arms: argent three lying crescents noir; the shield supported on both sides by a lion rampant and surmounted by a crown or.
This was the Coat of Arms of Jan van Polanen, Lord of the Leek en Breda, who received "the Village of Oosterhout with its High Court" by testament from Willem van Duivenvoorde, when he died without legal inheritor in 1358.
Jarig Bakker, 28 May 2005