Diegem stone
For centuries Diegem was known for its stone quarries and sand pits, mainly in the north-east and south of the municipality and near the station. On the higher ground the subsoil of sand, sandstone and gravel lies exposed. The stone went along the Broekstraat to the Diegemse Ham, a small landing place on the Senne between Haren and Machelen, and was shipped from there.
In 1844 the town clerk wrote that the quarries meant 'real prosperity': many labourers worked there summer and winter, and in winter the farmers used their horses to carry dyke stone to the canal. In the 1930s Eugeen De Seyn still mentioned the quarries of dyke and building stone, mainly for foundations. In 1980 the De Kempeneer brothers still worked sand pits and quarries on both sides of the Haachtsesteenweg, where you enter the village from Haren.
What the ground revealed
Digging brought many finds to light. Shark teeth, shells, mammoth tusks and remains of crabs recall the time, some 60 million years ago, when there was a beach here. Around 1810 about forty coins of Louis the Pious were found, minted at Melle in Poitou. Archaeologists also recorded stone axes from the Neolithic, including a polished jade hand axe found as early as 1784 in the quarry near the Lomolen.
In 1948 Karel De Kempeneer came across a Gallo-Roman grave in his sand pit between the Haachtsesteenweg and the Brussels-Liège railway. The excavations by J. Mertens in May 1950 uncovered three white jugs, a small cup, a terra sigillata dish from eastern Gaul and two spindle whorls, together with remains of burnt bones. It was a cremation cemetery from the late 2nd and early 3rd century, along a Roman road running south from Elewijt.
A few hundred metres away a Merovingian urn had been found earlier, a so-called Knicktopf from the 7th century decorated with roller stamps; such pots are rare in our region. In 1970 the De Kempeneer brothers also found a ball of grey sandstone, and around the same time workers at the De Coninck cardboard factory came across a grave with a warrior and his horse. The owner heard about it too late.
Stone pits
‘Steenpoelen’ (stone pits) are mentioned in Diegem as early as 1280. At a depth of about three metres lay a bed of limy sandstone, which was cut out by hand. The workers often stood waist-deep in water and drank gin to keep warm. The pits were usually small: an owner had a plot ‘dug out’, after which the land had to be levelled again for the plough. In 1475 there were 43 pits on a single plot on the Waaienberg.
The stone was sought after. On 17 June 1384 the Brussels city council decided that the lime kilns should preferably use stone from Evere and Diegem, which was considered the best and sold at a higher price. The hard stone went into churches and houses, the soft into foundations and walls, and much stone was shipped via the Diegem Ham on the Senne, and later the Willebroek canal, for the dykes of Holland and Zeeland. In 1506 countless wagonloads of stone came from Diegem and Melsbroek to Vilvoorde for the castle tower, and in the 15th century Bruges also fetched paving stones from Diegem.
In the winter of 1855-1856 the municipality had unemployed workers dig stone from under the roads to pave the streets with it. In 1863 Jaak Willox was allowed to build brick kilns. The last pit on the Lo was worked in 1914; in 1930 there were still two in Diegem itself. On the Haachtsesteenweg, on the Haren side, the sand pits of the De Kempeneer brothers carried on long afterwards.