Old roads
Because all traffic had to cross the Woluwe at the Voorde, the roads from both banks met there. Along the eastern border ran the Houtweg, an old track that came from Watermael past the three Woluwes and ended on the Senne beyond the Voorde. The Oude Keulsebaan (Old Cologne Road) through Evere and Haren, towards Kampenhout and Aarschot, may lie at the origin of the later Haachtsesteenweg; it is seen as a 2nd-century highway.
On the other side of the Woluwe the Broekstraat led to the 'broeken' (marshes) of Machelen and Vilvoorde, as far as the Diegemse Ham on the Senne. Diegem stone was shipped from there. The Schetsstraat, Scytstraete in 1350, owes its name to the boundary ('schei') between Diegem and Machelen.
Field names
On the slope towards Haren lay the Harenheide, divided into long narrow plots with names such as the Moren, the Eeckhout (oak wood), the Moelie (after the shape of a baker's kneading trough), the Drie Linden (three limes), the Bessemveld (where willows for brooms grew), the Kerkveld (church field), the Kalenberg (bare hill) and the Muizenkelder (mouse cellar). On the slope towards the Lo were, among others, the Schetsveld, the Hoorenveld, the Weyenberg (a windy hilltop), the Korenberg and the Land van Luik. The latter has nothing to do with the city of Liège but probably refers to Luyck van Pede, mayor in 1483.
The Drielinden quarter owes its name to three lime trees at the three crossroads of the Kosterstraat, Drielindenstraat and Groenstraat. Elsewhere single trees gave their name to a spot, such as the Preeklinde (preaching lime), under which, according to legend, a saint once preached.
Army camps
In the second half of the 17th century armies camped several times on the Diegem plains. In 1684 there were 30,000 Dutch and Spanish soldiers, after the battle of Fleurus in 1690 the allies withdrew here, and in May 1693 there were 24,000 soldiers. According to Wauters the field names Regimentsberg and Kempblok date from that time, although the Regimentsberg is already mentioned in 1645. In September 1830 the Dutch troops also camped in Diegem, before and after their attack on Brussels.