Haus Buckshook

Residence (1657) in the city centre of Borghorst, Buckshook 4 Mud and half-timbered construction, probably the oldest preserved house in Borghorst

No. 4 Buckshook is a small house dating back to 1657; it is thus the oldest house still standing in Borghorst. Most of the homes of village weavers must have looked something like this; indeed, old photos show a row of similar houses on Buckshook. Almost all have since been either torn down, or converted and modernised.

During the 19th century, the house was home to, successively, the weaver families of Buskamp and Jerwers. They were then succeeded by factory workers, and the current owners acquired the building in 1965.

The house has an extremely protruding board gable resting on a curved tappet. In front was built a pigpen which accounts for around half of the front. The pigpen was generally used by day labourers to keep a goat and a pig, and next to it was a water closet. With the exception of the gable side facing Buckshook (the exposed or west side), all walls are still made of mud and straw, although they have since been covered with plaster or masonry during renovation.

The old thatched roof is still in place beneath the roof tiles. Of course, the interior has now been modernised, but just a few decades ago the house still had the typical stamped mud floor in the hall and the kitchen. At the back of the kitchen was an open fireplace above which the cooking pot was suspended. Like almost all Westphalian crofters' and peasants' houses, the 'Upkammer', or pantry, was located next to the kitchen on the return above. The sitting room has a very low ceiling, a continuous beam and leaning walls; it is illuminated by two small windows which are still part of the original structure. The cellar beneath the storeroom is level with the bare earth, and has particularly thick walls, designed to prevent the occupants' potatoes and other provisions suffering frost damage during the winter.

In private ownership