West Auckland is a village in County Durham through which the A 68 road passes north/south. Its War Memorial is a repurposed water fountain (originally known as ‘The Pant,’ built in 1848 and redicated for Queen victoria’s 60th Jubilee) and is situated on West Auckland’s West Green. A War Memorial bench  is to the left below and the structure is flanked by two ‘ghost soldiers’:-

Wording on plaque on ‘The Pant’:-

War Memorial dedication:-

Name plaques. Northern Ireland commemoration on right hand one:-

Jelle Dam was a socialist activist who helped illuminate the living conditions of agricultural workers in rural Friesland.

This replica of his last house is the final exhibit as you go round De Spitkeet anti-clockwise:-

Jelle Dam fared reasonably out of his writing. The interior is well appointed:-

Like many such houses one of the rooms was given over to being a shop selling produce grown on the land (plus some other.) These shops were usually tended to by the wife:-

After the Second World War housing was so scarce in the Friesland area that chicken coops were converted to housing. De Spitkeet contains an example of this. It looked fairly substantial to me and homely enough:-

Goats at De Spitkeet. This type of goat is particular to the area:-

Another building at De Spitkeet (see previous posts) was called the Jehannes-Hinke Hus:-

Side view:-

Entrance (and bikes):-

Entrance from inside:-

View from entrance:-

Looking back:-

Living room:-

Oven/cooker:-

Box bed:-

Another doll’s hosue:-

Thatched roof and tools:-

The Swa Hus type was an attempt to improve the living conditions in rural Friesland.

Swa Hus at De Spitkeet:-

Interiors:-

Doll’s House in Swa Hus:-

Tool room:-

This is an even more primitive house than the Earth House at De Spitkeet. The people dug a hole and strengthened it with wooden beams and poles. They further built up the walls and ceilings with grass or heather sods.

Interior:-

A bit further round the grounds of De Spitkeet there was this opening where during World War 2 young men hid from patrols to avoid being taken to Germany to work in factories etc. It must have been better disguised in those days or the bare earth leading to it would have been a giveaway:-

The cemetery at De Spitkeet has a wooden belfry. This was because it was believed bells frightened away evil spirits. No-one was buried there for nine years until the belfry was erected.

Part of cemetery with spitkeet earth house:-

Belfry and spitkeet house:-

There are several examples at De Spitkeet of the types of houses people lived in in the area in times gone by.

Below is a typical Spitkeet turf house:-

Reverse view:-

Entrance:-

Information about. In the Mallemolen museum part there was a photograph from the 1930 with children sleeping on the floor:-

Interior:-

Clogs:-

Fire layout and cooking pot:-

Parents’ bed:-

The Spitkeet (see previous post) acreage is centred round a collapsed pingo, a depression formed after ice age permafrost melted. They are usually filled with water. The landscape of Friesland and parts of Groningen Province contains quite a few pingos.

Pingo and bridge:-

The bridge:-

The pingo from the bridge. The Mallemolen (see previous post, is to the left in the middle distance):-

De Spitkeet is an open air rural museum near Harkema, Friesland, The Netherlands. A spitkeet was  akind of Earth-house.

The first exhibit you come to is a building called the Mallemolen:-

The Mallemolen acted as a poorhouse. The coldest room, on the northeast, was given to the latest arrivals and when others became available they would move into those:-

The rooms look not too bad though:-

Box beds:-

Near the Mallemolen was a stork’s nest:-