In the village of St-Joris, the small square called Pelderijn (from the word pilori, pillory) still bears witness to the medieval ‘lordship’ of St-Joris. Until the end of the Ancien Régime (1795), the parish contained a number of lordships that were dependent on the Burg of Bruges.
Initially, we had the lordship of "Sint-Joris" and the lordship of "de Oudsten" (Houtschen), the later "vanden Berghe". The fief "vanden Berghe" was dependent on the fief court of the Burg of Bruges. It included a moated castle (the later castle "de Lanier"), farmyard and lands, and had a law with bailiff, mayor and seven aldermen, with the authority to administer high justice. The justice was administered on the small square "Pelderijn" (located along the current Lattenklieverstraat and at the end of the current Kerkstraat). Until 1985, the bailiff's house was also present on the square (see the beautiful patrician house in the black and white photo; now a bank office).
The square is still called 'Pelderijn', because the 'pilorijn' (or pillory) used to be here, where tied up criminals were exhibited. The name Galgeveld also recalls this period and refers to the gallows, which was erected around 1650 by Mr. van den Berghe at the end of the Galgevelddreef (now located between the railway and the motorway).
After the First World War, the municipal council of St-Joris decided that a liberty tree would be planted in the middle of the Pelderijn as a token of gratitude for the fact that there were no war victims in St-Joris. This liberty tree, planted in 1919, was the subject of heated debate in 1965. The starting volleyball team (now VBC St-Joris) wanted to build an (outdoor) volleyball court on the Pelderijn. Jules De Mey, chairman of the Oudstrijdersbond, fought for the preservation of the symbolic tree. The volleyball team finally started its activities on a small field in the Galgeveld.
This silver lime tree, now also called the Vredesboom, has been protected as a monument by the Agency for Immovable Heritage since 14 June 2010 (as well as a circular zone with a radius of 10m around it).
A long, beautiful ‘castle drive’ (popularly known as the Kooldreef) starts from the Pelderijn to the castle de Lanier. It is the old drive that already ran from the castle along the Pelderijn to the church in the time of Marius Vanden Berghe.