A thriving wealthy cloth-town, it had thousands of small workshops making serge cloth from locally grown flax.

Events such as Beeldenstorm, conquest by France and the War of the Spanish Succession, however, brought an end to prosperity.

The cloth-makers fled to what is now Belgium and England, taking their skills to benefit France's rivals.

The battle of Hondschoote in 1793 was a key event in saving the French First Republic from an invasion by English, Hanoverian and Austrian troops that had been sent in order to rid France of revolutionaries.

During the battle, windmill Spinnewyn served as look-out post and first-aid station.