The Manufacturer Vogelpoel

ln 1746, Jan Willem Vogelbol from Tecklenburg in Prussia married Elisabeth of Noorwegen, the Geldropse. In Geldrop, his name was written as Vogelpoel. Vogelpoel became a cooper's companion in Geldrop. One and a half year after his establishment, he and his brother-in-law, Jan van Noorwegen, travelled to England, Scotland and Ireland to practice his craft 'with better fortune'. He came into contact with the emerging industrialisation in Scotland. This industrialisation was mainly noticeable in the textile industry, which is why the two adventurers did not seek their happiness in the machinations, but in the textiles. With the knowledge they gained there, they returned to Geldrop.

In 1767 Joost Vogelpoel (son of Jan Willem Vogelpoel) left for Erperfelt to learn how to dye sheets. Erperfelt was a textile center where industrialisation was on the rise.

Afterwards, Joost owned the most important textile company in Geldrop. In 1812 he borrowed NLG 33,000 from the Eindhoven merchant Peter van Dijck. Shortly afterwards, as a result of the decline in sales, he had to put his spinning mill and weaving house up for sale. The definitive sale of the buildings could be prevented, but three years later all properties of Vogelpoel in Geldrop were sold. It was a startling sale. Various business premises, such as the warehouse, the drying house, the dye house, the spinning mill and the coil were sold. The founder of factory production of textiles, Adrianus van den Heuvel (1794-1854) bought this in 1836. This building was popularly called 'Het Hooghuis'. Ten houses and about forty lands were also sold for a bargain. The old inn 'De Wildeman', on the corner of the Heuvel with the Wielstraat, was taken over by the main creditor, Peter van Dijck. The property came into the hands of a Belgian cloth manufacturer J. Deceulenaar. In 'De Wildeman' a lot of meetings were held by the aldermen, later they got their own council chamber.