Etten

This page shows a comparison of Etten in the end of the 19th century and Etten in the 21th century, when it's called Etten-Leur since a fusion with the village Leur in 1968.

Etten in the end of the 19th century

When Vincents father is called as a clergyman at the the parish at Etten in 1875, Etten and the village nextdoor Leur are small places, counting 5700 inhabitants. Most of them are catholic.

A map of Etten's city center,
made by Ds. Theo van Gogh
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Etten at the end of the 19th century When Vincent's father is appointed as a clergyman at the the parish at Etten in 1875, Etten and the village next-door Leur are small places, with just 5700 inhabitants. Most of them were Catholic. In that time Leur had its own parish, the parish of Etten had just 158 members. The municipality of Etten and Leur was just a litlle village situated between Roosendaal and Breda in an environment with lots of forests and moors. Most of the people were working as agriculturists. At Leur was a sugar factory, employing 150 men during the season the sugar-beets were processed into sugar. At Etten and Leur were 3 cigar-works, employing 40 people. For the rest there were only a few one-man businesses, giving work to just one or two servants or errand-boys: a few breweries, a couple of forges, some mills, some clogmakers, tanners and more then 20 shoemakers. Two hundred men were working at these businesses. There were just a few shops in the village during the eighties, most of the people went to Breda to buy the things they needed. You were able to reach Breda walking, or using horse and carriage. It was also possible to take a freight carriage, going every Thursday and Friday to Breda and back. Besides, Etten had a railroad station at the railroad between Breda and Roosendaal. People did not earn a lot of money during that time. Clergyman Van Gogh earned 900 guilders a year, much money compared to what the other people earned, but not quite an amount to live in luxury ... Life at Etten and Leur was very peaceful. Just the weekly cattle-market at Etten gave some diversion to the daily life. From time to time there was the occassional disaster: in 1881 two farms were burned down completely: one at the Steenweg, a road from Etten to Leur, the other one at the Klappenberg.

Etten in the 21th century

The growth of the
habitants of Etten
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Etten in the 21th century At the end of the 20th century, Etten Leur got more and more new inhabitants. If you were working at Etten, you like to live here too. The former little village is growing bigger and bigger. The sleepy agricultural villages of Etten and Leur from the time of Vincent Van Gogh have grown up to a dynamic industrial little town, with an intimate atmosphere that still remembers to those years of the past. There are lots of possibilities in the field of living, working, shopping, education, entertainment and culture. You can reach Etten-Leur very easyly and quickly by train, bus or car, or on-line at http://www.etten-leur.nl. At the moment the diversion of highway A58, which divided Etten-Leur into two parts, has been finished and now the town will get the opportunity to make a new and swinging commercial centre at the location of the former highway.