Count Willem V gave Delft permission to build bulwarks topped by walls around the city
Date:
May 3, 1355
Willem V gave Delft permission to build bulwarks of earth dug from the canals around the area that the city had the rights to administer. These bulwarks were topped by stone and brick walls. The waterway ringing the bulwarks became known as the singel (belt). It was soon followed by completion of the first two city gates at the north and south end of the Oude Delft.
Willem's charter used gaarden -- literally, groves -- as a unit of measurement, for example, an area of ground 34 gaarden wide. Perhaps it was close to what we now consider a yard.
