Boerderij(M1), Esschebaan 25

English translation

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Description

Introduction.
To the north-west of the village centre of Boxtel, near the municipal boundary with Esch, a completely detached, former EXPERIMENTAL FARM together with PIG FATTENING FACILITY is situated.
The building is located on a large rectangular plot perpendicular to the Esschebaan. On it, in the south-western corner, the building running from south-east to north-west, which has an H-shaped floor plan, with the largely parallel front and rear sections parallel to the Esschebaan.
On the instructions of the main board of the North Brabant Christian Farmers' Association (NCB), a T-shaped experimental farm was built in 1931 which shows elements of Traditionalism, probably designed by the Tilburg-based architect C.M.B. van den Beld. In 1938, Van den Beld added an elongated selective pig fattening facility to this, creating the characteristic H-shape. From the beginning of the twentieth century, the influential North Brabant Christian Farmers' Association promoted pig keeping and breeding in regions with poor sandy soils. However, breeding and fattening were not yet at such a high level. When after the First World War, under the influence of changing insights in the field of nutrition and health, the preference for fatty meat and thick bacon increasingly changed into a demand for lean bacon and meat without much fat, the time was ripe to systematically establish the most ideal diet and breeding methods in experimental farms in order to improve the breed and meat quality. This was further strengthened by the economic crisis, which meant that more than ever before it was important to bring a good product to the market. The T-shaped experimental farm was extended in 1938 with the selective pig fattening facility. Because the building is no longer in use as an experimental farm, the building has been altered in various aspects during the nineteen eighties and nineties. The interior (attic storey above the entrance, left wing of the front section) has been largely modernised, the original construction system has been partially altered, and the right wing of the selective fattening facility on the rear section has been extended with four bays built in keeping with the style. The drainage system (originally box gutters) has also been simplified.
Assessment.
The object is of general public interest. It has very high cultural-historical values as a particular expression of the economic crises of the nineteen twenties and thirties of the twentieth century and of the developments in the agricultural sector concerning pig farming and fattening as they occurred in Brabant. Furthermore, the object is a particular expression of a changed consumer demand for pork meat based on altered insights in the field of nutrition and health. The object is further of cultural-historical value because of the importance of the floor plan for the typological development of experimental farms and because of the innovative value of the organisational structure, since in the present object two functions, experimental farm and experimental selective fattening facility, were combined within one building. The object is furthermore important because of its typological and functional rarity.