Tomp Tower

Tomp Tower, locally known as simply the Tomp, lies in a wet forest near the village of Achel, in the province of Limburg in the Flemish region in Belgium.

Now what about Tomp Tower...

Up until the 1990's it was thought that Tomp Tower was a round keep dating back to around 1309. That it had been built by a knight; Willem II van Boxtel. That it had been besieged in 1365 and had fallen to ruin in the 15th century when its inhabitants moved to the newly built Grevenbroek Castle nearby.

So when the ruined tower was restored in 1968, it was rebuilt as a fortified tower.

People were not really sure of this history, however. So in the 1990s an investigation was started. And, also through comparative research, it was finally concluded that Tomp Tower never had been a fortified tower but a tower mill.

So the consensus now is that it was a tower mill built in the first half of the 15th century by the Lords of Grevenbroek. It was damaged during a storm in 1596 but later repaired. Before 1630 it was taken out of use and its milling work taken over by a newly built wooden post mill. This post mill burned down in 1800.

Tomp Tower is only accessible on special days. But when the trees have shed their leaves, it can be seen from a public dirt road. A curious tower in a quiet wood.

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