In the past, there were low, whitewashed houses of the lath splitters along the Vaart-Zuid (see colour photo taken around 1964). The (then) canal had towpaths on both sides, which were constructed at the time for the ship pullers and the floats (see black and white photo with a view of the canal and church, taken before 1944).
In this neighbourhood, i.e. at the back of the current primary school, there was a mill until 1885, which was owned by Carolus Vandermoere-Decraemer and his sons Petrus and Joannes. This mill is already drawn on the Ferraris map of 1777 (see photo of image of map).
Also on the other side of the canal, in the Kauter, there was a mill a long time ago: the wooden grain and oil windmill 'de Koutermolen' by Oscar Cornelis. This mill was built in 1775 and demolished around 1911. This mill can be seen in the background of the black and white photo showing the two barges of Franciscus Van Zeveren moored at the Schippershuis, the current café De Brug.
Since 1987, after the canal was straightened, the street Vaart-Zuid is located at the end of the old, closed canal arm (see aerial photo).
From Vaart-Zuid (i.e. at the end of the street on the side of the village centre) one can also access the so-called ‘canal island’: this is the land to be found between the new canal and the old canal arm. This canal island is owned by the Flemish government agency Waterwegen en Zeekanaal NV (now De Vlaamse Waterweg).
At the end of the 1980s, a gliding club was briefly established on the canal island. For a long time, there was also talk of another recreational use: namely, football club KFC Sint-Joris Sportief would get a new football accommodation there. But that plan fizzled out for the municipal government because approvals were not granted.
The canal island currently has (unfortunately for the Sint-Jorisnaars) no recreational use, except that the Chiro can play in the front piece of forest and the constructed (but never officially put into use) football field is now rented out as a horse pasture. Most of the space on the canal island is now used for dumping and processing dredged sludge from canals and rivers in the Leie and Scheldt basins.
Translated by Google •
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