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Bontebok (The Netherlands)

Heerenveen municipality, Fryslân province

Shipmate Flagchart : http://www.flagchart.net
adopted: 1997; design: J.C. Terluin.

Bontebok village
Bontebok Coat of Arms

See also:

Bontebok village

Bontebok (meaning: spotted billygoat) was a hamlet of the village of Nieuwehorne along the Schoterlandse Compagnonsvaart (another canal to transport peat), named after a former pub. There was a lock here, and a dairy factory.
Coat of Arms: in blue a (black-white) billygoat, standing on a green meadow.
Flag: divided in four over 1/3 of flaglength of yellow and red; over the dividing lines a blue cross with a width of 1/10 flagheight. In the canton a standing (black-white) multicolored billygoat and at hoistbottom a peat-spade and an "oplizzer" (another peat-implement), in saltire, with the handles on top, all yellow.
Bontebok was originally a pub with the name "Bonte Bock", at the place where the footpath from Nijhorne to Gersloot and the Compagnonsvaart. There was also a lock to regulate the waterlevel. Around the pub and that crossing a hamlet developed with the name of the pub: Bontebok. In 1979 the hamlet received the village-status.
The village did already have a Coat of Arms, derived from the advertisinbg sign of the pub. In 1997 the society for village interests started to develop a plan for a village flag.
The flag is dividided in four parts, a so-called Scandinavian cross. In the canton is the multicolored billygoat from the arms; the yellow color of this quarter and the fourth quarter signify sandy soil. Bontebok is on a high sandridge. In the red quarter in the hoistbottom are two peat-implements iof yellow. The peat-spade (jutte) was used at making "baggelders" (short peat-blocks); the "oplizzer" was used for digging off "turven" (long rectangular peat-blocks). The color red represents heather. The blue cross the Compagnonsvaart and the roadcrossing.
Design flag: J.C. Terluin, after consulation of "Pleatslik Belang".
Source: Genealogysk Jierboekje 1997.
Jarig Bakker, 24 Aug 2003

Bontebok Coat of Arms

from the Bontebokster website. (there are 3 different billygoatarms, but this is the real thing. bééééh!