The use of local field and place names to characterise soils in The Netherlands dates
back to the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, very few historical records are available on the
subject. Verbal testimony was not recorded even in the 20th century and therefore much
detailed, inside information cannot be retraced. In addition, the actual spelling may not be
accurate (Edelman and Vlam, 1949) and the meanings of some names are subject to doubt
(Edelman and van Hoffen, 1951). However, the present Dutch soil classification system
incorporates local field and place names at Subgroup level. The names are related to the
location of the soils and, in particular, to the proximity of water, the position in the
landscape or the soil use. In recent publications on ethnopedology and the history of soil
science, few references are found relating to western Europe and none to the Netherlands
(Barrera-Bassols and Zinck, 2000; Yaalon and Berkowicz, 1997), and may be attributed to
the publication of most information in the Dutch language