Stout based his research on dissertations and local newspapers (archives): “Drenthe peat diggers went straight from work to the center of the village in clogs or boots, very dirty and filthy. They received complaints about that. But it takes six months and then everyone is dressed neatly. Those newspaper articles are of course aimed at the riots caused by the first Drenthe people, who lived on Waterside, a block of houses on the River Don. After that they were sent away because of too much noise in cafes. drunkenness and knife pulling. Then they moved five kilometers away in Dutch Row, which is now called Dutch Row. They have gradually adapted.”
“They were just ‘rod in the mouth’. I think it really has to do with that. I don’t want to say that they were uncivilized,” says Stout, and gives an example: “One of those peat diggers was convicted there because he had beaten his wife. He ‘wanted his wife to fuck off, I don’t want that woman around here anymore’. He said to the judge: ‘You certainly don’t think I’m going to pay for that, just look at it.’ There was also something uncivilized there, but what you see in the photos from that time, of those peat diggers, that they had a white shirt and a vest on. They were just in suits while they were there digging peat. Well That is very special.”
First the knowledge went to England: knowledge of waterways, and knowledge of peat digging. Migrant workers followed in its wake. “That’s exactly right. Those workers went there. They also married Englishmen. From Thorne they also went to peatlands in Scotland. Those who stayed there were integrated and people were very satisfied with the Dutch who came there. You would can say that they were fortune seekers. That term is now a bit loaded, but it is human nature to seek happiness and they found happiness in Thorne, near Hull in England. There are now others who also seek their happiness here I agree with them completely,” said Gerard Stout.