Livinushof in Sint-Margriete

After Sint-Margriete was completely flooded by seawater in 1377 and together with a dozen villages, especially north in the current Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, was totally uninhabitable, it was only more than a hundred years later that the redevelopment of dykes began and the excess water guided along waterways and locks. The abbot of the Sint-Baafs abbey in Ghent was the great driving force. This created various polderswhose names quite regularly referred to saints or Christian elements. For Sint-Margriete we also mention the Sint-Kruispolder and the Sint-Lievenspolder, next to the Roeselarepolder (where formerly a church had been). But in 1570 and in 1622 new floods brought a lot of misery again. It is only then from the beginning of the 18th century that this last polder, although scarcely inhabited, became fertile.

<old4 The Livinushof is located west of the Sint-Lievenspolderin the southern half of it, almost in the shadow of the former village mill. According to a map of 1714, Joseph Bockstael farmed with at most twenty measured land (1 meager = 44are = 300 roes) around the farm and some other land spread over other polders. From the beginning of the 19th century there lived a few generations of Van Cauwenberghe. They too were flooded after the dikes had been broken by the Dutch in 1830: almost a year all the lands were under water. He suffered the most loss in Sint-Margriete, but one. Petrus Van Cauwenberghe died on this farm in 1874 at the age of 77. His 4 unmarried sons went on farming, with less success however. One of them emigrated to America in early 1880 and convinced his mother, an unmarried brother,

Two other brothers moved to northern France at the end of 1880. This way this farm was released . Shortly after New Year 1881 the 42-year-old August Noë came with his wife, 4 daughters, his mother-in-law and the later stock father Emiel from Kluizen to Sint-Margriete. In that same year, the new church of Sint-Margriete, very well visible from the farm, was inaugurated. Four generations of Noë are already working on this court, a fifth is approaching.

(Text: Lovendegem 12 July 2009 by Marijn Claeys married with (+) Caroline Noë, Caroline is twin sister of Carlos Noë the current farmer)

More information can be found on www.mijnplatteland.com brought together by Denis Noë brother of Carlos.

Location