In 1161, the Norbertines of Vicoigne in Raismes became the owners of a sheepfold on a slightly elevated area surrounded by mudflats and marshes.

This settlement would become a monastic domain, Viconia Kasteelhoeve [nl]; the area was encircled with dikes and became a fairly important center for sheep farming.

[2] In the vicinity of Tervate and Stuivekenskerke, small fortifications were built by the Spaniards at the end of the 16th century, as a defense line against looting by reformists from Ostend.

B. de Graeve decided to have a new church built, two kilometers north of the village center, in the vicinity of his estate, the Viconia.

In the following years, a new village center soon arose around this church, with a square, a school, a rectory, an inn and a grocery store.

The battle for the Yser, the edge of the last part of Belgium not occupied by the Germans, started on 18 October 1914, and Diksmuide and Nieuwpoort came under attack the next day.

The day after, the German army reached the Tervatebrug [nl], and threatened to overrun allied positions and get straight to Dunkirk.

Dodengang, a system of trenches where the Belgian and German armies were only meters away, was just north of Diksmuide, on the Yser.

[1] This important Belgian outpost ("The Great Guard South") was manned from December 1914 to May 1915 by the artillery observer Edouard Lekeux (Aarlen, 1884 - Luik, 1962[4]), a reserve lieutenant and a Franciscan minorite, who moved to the Goemaere family farm after German artillery had leveled the church tower.

The Oud-Stuivekenserke landscape is dominated by the "Our Lady of Victory" chapel (1924-1925, by Veurne architect Camille Van Elslande), the ruined church tower from 1572, and the many military remembrances of World War I.