Zuid-Holland
Westland
At Museum De Timmerwerf, tools represent a trade whose work extended beyond the bench. Carpenters also maintained windmills, a connection made tangible by templates for mill paddle blades. Behind the workshop is a dwelling furnished in the style of around 1900. Work and home sit one behind the other here. The museum in De Lier offers a small, concrete starting point for the history of Westland.
Outside the museum, the scale changes. The municipality has eleven village centres, including De Lier, Naaldwijk, Maasdijk and Ter Heijde. Naaldwijk’s Wilhelminaplein brings together buildings from different periods. The former town hall on Herenstraat has a frontage bearing the date 1688, although the building was founded earlier. A date on a façade therefore does not always tell the whole building history.
Open spaces differ too. Staelduinse Bos combines deciduous woodland and old estate avenues on former dunes. On the coast at Ter Heijde, sand and beach access points shape the scene. A museum workshop, a village square and a woodland walk each call for a different pace. Together they reveal the range of places contained within one municipality.
Tools and everyday life
Museum De Timmerwerf
Museum De Timmerwerf at Hoofdstraat 63 in De Lier preserves a historic workshop and a furnished dwelling. Tools, an old lathe and templates for mill paddle blades connect craft with everyday life. A sound and light presentation explains carpentry. The dwelling’s furnishings evoke the period around 1900.
Hoofdstraat 63, 2678 CG De Lier
A day in Westland
An example for an ordinary Saturday, excluding exceptional closures. De Timmerwerf normally opens from 10:00 to 16:00. The museum morning is followed by an outdoor walk in Naaldwijk; the ninety-minute gap allows for lunch and travel between the villages. Church interiors and a guided tour are outside the scope of this example.
10:00–11:30 · Museum De Timmerwerf, De Lier
The morning begins at De Timmerwerf in De Lier. The workshop and dwelling show how craft and household life existed alongside one another. The permanent display forms the core of this visit; temporary exhibitions have their own dates.
13:00–14:30 · Wilhelminaplein and Herenstraat, Naaldwijk
The afternoon centres on Wilhelminaplein and Herenstraat in Naaldwijk. The former town hall at Herenstraat 6 was founded in 1562; its façade bears 1688, marking a later alteration. The square, façades and church can be viewed from outside.
Map and localities
Localities
- De Lier
- Honselersdijk
- Kwintsheul
- Maasdijk
- Monster
- Naaldwijk
- Poeldijk
- 's-Gravenzande
- Ter Heijde
- Wateringen
More about Ter Heijde by the sea
Ter Heijde has beach access points at Strandweg and Karel Doormanweg. The municipality’s beach information distinguishes these from the entrances near Monster and ’s-Gravenzande. The April 2016 photograph shows a beach pavilion raised on tall supports, surrounded by sand and dunes. Village buildings and open beach form two different sides of this coastal settlement.
Key figures and transport
Population
118,874
Area
90.74 km²
Water
9.96 km²
Localities
10
Reference date · 1 January 2026
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Woodland on old dunes
Staelduinse Bos
Staelduinse Bos near ’s-Gravenzande combines deciduous woodland with traces of a nineteenth-century estate. The area is accessible throughout the year and has marked walking routes. Second World War bunkers stand beside the routes; their interiors are closed to visitors and provide roosts for bats. The photograph shows the woodland in September 2010.