Aartswoud (West Frisian: Ierswoud) is a village in the Dutch province of North Holland, part of the municipality of Opmeer. It lies about northeast of Heerhugowaard. Aartswoud has been inhabited since the Neolithic, and a church may have existed as early as 1395; the village still has a 16th-century church tower. Formerly a harbor settlement on the Zuiderzee, it became landlocked after the Wieringermeer was created. The village sits on the Westfriese Omringdijk, a dike completed in 1250 that protects an area of , and is now an accesspoint for several nature reserves that reclaim the land, the landscape, the water levels, and the flora and fauna of the earlier West-Frisian countryside. History The area of Aartswoud has been inhabited since the late Neolithic age, and a settlement there (whose remains are wide and long) is an important source for the Beaker culture. Macrobotanical remains from the site are of Einkorn wheat, Emmer, Common wheat, Naked and Hulled barley, and Flax. In the Middle Ages, and until the later Wieringermeer was poldered in and the harbor filled in, Aartswoud was a harbor village on the Zuiderzee. The first documented occurrence of the name is from 1311, Nedartswoude; variants are Edaertswoude and Edairtswoude. The name is a possible reference to the wooded area (woud) owned by the Edaert family, whose name is Frisian. This later became Aertswoud (1450) with variant spellings for the initial vowel sounds, and finally Aartswoud. An edict from 1404 mandates that the dike at Aartswoud should always be able to be breached in case of an emergency; this happened in 1573, during the Siege of Alkmaar, when polders in the area of the Spanish encampment were flooded. The village was the location of some excitement in 1799 when, during the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, Batavian commander Herman Willem Daendels charged at a troop of British soldiers led by Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart, and captured twenty men and thirteen horses. According to a source from 1844, the area including Hoogwoud and Aartswoud was owned by Edward or Evert, a son of William IV, Duke of Bavaria, who took the surname Hoogwoud for his family. In 1607 it was acquired by , of the Egmond family. In the middle of the 18th century it was owned by , and by 1844 by Mattheus Johannes Worbert, count of Wassenaar. Church and tower A church in Aartswoud is attested probably in 1395 under