"Keikoppen (stoneheads)" Poperinge Favorite Tip by tompt

Favorite thing: The people from Poperinge are called Keikoppen (stoneheads). The nickname is dating back to may 1341.
The cities Ieper, Brugge and Gent had the only right to do trading in cloth. But in Poperinge they ignored that and made there own cloth and sold it.
In may 1341 a group of people from Ieper attacked Poperinge. They killed the leader of the people of Poperinge, Jacob Bets, and some others. They burned part of Poperinge, wrecked the looms and took some prisonners. The people from Ieper also attacked Reningelst, Krombeke and Proven because of competition in the cloth trade.

Poperinge didn't stop the clothtrade though. Inspite of people taken hostage, and fines. That is why they got the name Keikoppen, which means something like they are very stuburn.

A 1 650 kg weighing stone was placed in front of the St bernadinus church in honor of this name and to remember 800 years of market.