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Eagum (The Netherlands)

Boarnsterhim municipality, Fryslân province

Shipmate Flagchart : http://www.shipmate.nl/flags.htm

Eagum village (the center of the world ... nearly)
Eagum CoA

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Eagum village (the center of the world ... nearly)

Eagum (old Dutch name: Aegum) is a village in Boarnsterhim municipality in Frylân. It used to be in the former municipality of Idaarderadeel. It is one of the smallest villages of Fryslân - there are 23 inhabitants, The village consists of 6 farms and an old church-spire.
When King Willem III died all bells all over the Netherlands were ringing, except for the bell in the church of Eagum. The villagers heard the news only one day later. They decided to avenge themselves: on the day of the King's funeral they started to chime the bell one hour before the official ringing time. When all bells started ringing the Eagum one was silent, but when they other were silent the Eagum one started again, making it being heard all over the municipality several times. That's ll teach 'em, the villagers told each other.
Eagum: CoA: in silver a red waterlilyleaf with a green shield-head, in which three rooster's legs with feathers.
According to tradition the center of Fryslân (and therefore of the whole wide world) is at three rooster's paces (trije hoannestappen) from the churchspire of Eagum.
The Frisian student society "Bernlef" in Groningen has solemnly placed a stone with a rooster at three rooster's paces from the church-spire.
Flag: two vertical stripes of green and red proportioned 2:1; in the green stripe a yellow trinacria of rooster's legs with feathers.
Source: Genealogysk Jierboekje 1986.
Encyclopedie van Friesland, 1958.
Jarig Bakker, 19 Aug 2003

How long would a rooster's pace be in metres?
Elias Granqvist, 20 Aug 2003

This would, of course, largely depend upon the breed, age and condition of the rooster in question. But at an average of 6.9 cm per pace (assuming that this was an average rooster, and assuming that average roosters in the Netherlands are the same as average roosters elsewhere, and assuming that I have the average correct in the first place) three paces would be 20.7 cm. On the other hand, if the rooster was as drunk as the students who placed him on the stone probably was, then the three "rooster's paces" in question would describe a half circle?
Christopher Southworth, 20 Aug 2003
(who obviously knows nothing whatever about cockerels)

According to my rusty math, the drunken rooster would walk an average of the square root of the number of paces, ending up some 4.5 cm from the starting point, though the direction is now unspecified...
Al Kirsch, 20 Aug 2003

With all this precision about how far the rooster walks from the bell-tower, nobody has specified whether the bird went north, south, east, west or somewhe