Deurne, Netherlands

Deurne (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈdøːrnə] ⓘ) is a rural municipality and eponymous village in the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands.

Including the villages of Liessel, Vlierden, Neerkant, and Helenaveen, Deurne had a population of 32,437 in 2021 and covers an area of 118.36 km2 (45.70 sq mi).

First recorded as Durninum (near / by thorns) in a deed of gift from the Frankish Lord Herelaef to bishop Willibrord in 721,[5] Deurne remained a collection of subsistence farming hamlets west of the Peel peat moor until the 19th century, when a newly built railroad (Eindhoven - Venlo in 1866) and a canal (Zuid-Willemsvaart canal in 1826) enabled the commercial exploitation of the moor.

[7] Today only tiny pieces of this former peat moor remain, some reflooded as mini wetlands, scattered along the fault line that once brought about its very existence.

Coincidentally, the very same Anglo Dutch Griendtsveen Peat Moss Litter Company Ltd. that extracted a significant part of the peat in the Peel moved to Thorne (Moorends) South Yorkshire, U.K.,[8] where several of its Dutch employees settled as immigrant workers.