Old Dutch farm house: a look inside
The interior of the old farm house called Lammerinkswönner I posted about earlier is still largely original.
On the inside, there is just one big room where people and animals lived together, which is why this type of house is called a lös hoes ("open house") in the local dialect. The only separated parts are the closet-beds and the attic, which was used for storing crops. At the centre of the household was the fireplace:
Olympus Stylus 1s, 28mm, ISO1600, f5.6, 1/30s
The stove you see here is a modern addition, for practical purposes. Originally, these houses had stove nor chimney, just an open fire and a hole in the roof. The roundish wooden contruction over the stove was for gathering the open fire's smoke and leading it outwards.
The fire was used for warmth and cooking; the kitchen parafernalia hung from a wooden beam that could be swung over the fire. The open fire's wood was more or less kept together with a firebox:
Olympus Stylus 1s, 55mm, ISO1600, f4, 1/40s
Note that the cobbled part of the floor is original, but the rest of the floor was just the sand the house was built on; the bricks are a later addition. Along the sides of the house were the closet-beds, and often a loom:
Olympus Stylus 1s, 33mm, ISO100, f8, 4s
Many farmers had a such a loom to supplement their income. They mostly wove linnen from locally-grown flax. This home industry was wiped out with the advent of the large textile factories in the region, see also this post.
The rest of the single room was for the animals, with a closed-off part for the pigs on the left:
Olympus Stylus 1s, 28mm, ISO200, f5.6, 1/30s, built-in flash
Two things you would expect indoors, a toilet and an oven, are actually outside. These ovens, called bakspiekers in the local dialect, were mainly used for baking bread, and often for communal use:
Olympus Stylus 1s, 35mm, ISO200, f5.6, 1/40s
Those are all the photos I was able to take, they should give you some idea of how the people lived in the region of Twente, The Netherlands a few centuries ago. Count your blessings.
@ocrdu wat leuk!
Volgens mij staat er ook een lös hoes in het openluchtmuseum in Arnhem.
@ocrdu klopt maar niet geopend tegenwoordig niet :(
It's so great that people have preserved some of these old buildings, to give us an idea of how people lived in earlier times. I imagine that the whole house smelled like a barn, but with wood smoke, too. It would have been quite a household. They sure dedicated a lot of space to the loom. Have you ever seen the process of going from flax to linen cloth? I have not - it must have been a real effort, those plants are not large. People had it so much harder, I think.
I have actually done the whole process, it's fun to experience, but I wouldn't want to make a job of it. My ancestors come from further West, where they also grew flax, but mainly hemp for rope and sails. The farmers there did the rather elaborate process up to isolating the hemp fibres themselves, these were then sold. This home industry was killed off by cheap imports of hemp fibres from the Far East.
That's neat that you've handled all that flax, through the whole process. At least linens is tough and doesn't wear out as fast as cotton. People are so innovative about using the plants around them. Such a connection to history. For the hemp, too.
The perfect companion story and photography
Cool my friend @ocrdu
Thanks.
Thank you for posting @ocrdu. Really have enjoyed seeing this farmhouse...inside and out. Excellent photographs and commentary. Cheers.
Thank you.
I love this post.....brings back memories of our old farm❤
Thanks.
You did have a chimney, I hope?
Yeah we had a fireplace in the living room and a potbelly stove in the kitchen. We had an outhouse, a canning and cook house with a chicken coop addition. As a child I was always afraid a spider would bite my butt when I had to use the outhouse.
It was very interesting. Every stuffs as a history were impressive. Really enjoyed.
Glad you liked it.
Very interesting to see the way people lived there just a few centuries ago. This is the first time I've seen such a fireplace! Thank you so much for sharing :)
Glad you like it!
nice photo
Thanks.