Heech Hiem

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Introduction

FARMHOUSE HEECH HIEM. Large, imposing STILT FARMHOUSE, built in 1889 in artisanal-traditional building style with Neoclassical elements; dairy cellar extended to the north side. In the front facade the foundation stone with the inscription: The first stone of this building laid on 17 July 1889 by Antje Lourens Baarda in Leeuwarden aged 10 years. The farmhouse is situated on a spacious and largely moated plot. The location, which is strikingly high relative to the surroundings, is owing to its position on an outcrop of the village terp. On the site of the current farmhouse there has certainly been a farmhouse since 1581, meaning there is certainly a 16th-century plot situation. The extended dairy cellar belonged to the demolished predecessor, but was retained when the current farmhouse was built. Certainly also because its installation, some years before, at a time when factory-scale dairy production was emerging, had been completely modernised. The name of the well-known Frisian farmhouse historian Klaas Uilkema (1873-1944) is connected to the predecessor of the current farmhouse. Uilkema describes this predecessor, in which he lived from his third to his eleventh year, at length in his standard work The Frisian Farmhouse (1916). The extended dairy cellar, which is incorporated in farmhouse Heech Hiem, stood separately from the demolished predecessor at that time and may date from the 18th century. Uilkema's father, Tjitze Sybrens Uilkema, is said to have modernised the dairy cellar around 1880 and equipped it with so-called Danish cooling tanks. With the help of these tanks, incidentally a Swedish invention, milk could be cooled with water and ice and faster creaming could be achieved. Next to the extended dairy cellar, in the north side of the barn a spacious dairy house has been accommodated - the domain of the farmer's wife with churn room and cheese dairy. Thanks to these then-modern facilities, farmhouse Heech Hiem, which lost its agricultural function in 1963, can be regarded as an important and rare variant on the common stilt type. The farmhouse has undergone some changes over the years. The front facade has lost its strictly symmetrical arrangement, one of the two blind windows has been removed, some modernisation has taken place in the residential part and the fittings of the business part have been removed. The changes are of subordinate importance for the perception and value of the farmhouse and plot. The historic plot with orchard already appears on 17th-century maps as 'fruit garden' and is marked on one of the first pre-cadastral maps as 'the plot with the Doeke Martens apple trees'. Of this apple variety, a specimen possibly over 200 years old still stands in the orchard. This and several other trees - including the Frisian varieties 'Lutske' Ringenet, Harm Harkes and Geite-oer - regularly provide grafting material to breeders of old fruit varieties and pomological societies. The position, strikingly high relative to the surroundings, at the edge of the medieval terp village Goutum, on an outcrop of the terp, is notable. Hence also the name Heech Hiem. The historic moat is still largely intact. The windbreak (mantle of lime trees) is also of older date.

Description

EXTERIOR: Stilt farmhouse of one complete storey, built of brown brick and covered by a large and imposing hipped roof with blue-glazed corrugated tile (front) and unglazed red Dutch pan behind; chimney, owl board; two weathervanes (one temporarily removed); profiled cornice with inscription HEECH HIEM on front facade; otherwise profiled gutters and gutters on blocks (business part); ornamental wall anchors (residential part) and staple anchors. The extended dairy cellar built of yellow brick and covered by a hipped roof with unglazed blue pan. Stone roof dormer with simple frame.

In the front facade of the residential part, which was later somewhat altered so that it is no longer entirely symmetrical, five slightly arched six-light windows and one blind; on the south facade another sixth identical window (all with weathercocks) and the hôfsdoar (door to the orchard) with cast-iron ornamental grille and fanlight. To the left of the middle window the foundation stone. In the middle of the front gable a substantial brick dormer with arched six-light sash window, flanked by flat pilasters; corniced profile moulding and profiled gutter.

In the dairy cellar on the west side two slightly arched hatch windows, wall openings with exterior and interior shutters and grilles alternating between iron and wood. On the north and east sides three similar hatch windows (non-arched), albeit with the two on the north each having a four-paned fanlight. In the north facade a low-placed business door with water step, stalt, which made possible the rinsing of buckets and similar work and the loading and unloading of small boats. Above this door a modern name stone with HEECH HIEM. The dairy house in the corner of dairy cellar and business part furnished with a closed rectangular, double six-light window; renewed door. The detailing of the barn part partly still original. In the rear facade (east) a set of recessed high double doors, skuorreduoarren, and a set of lower non-original doors, in which formerly the so-called bûthúsdoar (door to the cattle shed), originally with on either side a standing row of small windows with shutter on the inside (milkmaid); between these a row of small arched stable windows; in the north facade two sets of non-original double doors and three arched iron barn windows of larger size; the stable windows on the south side not original.

In the INTERIOR are notably important: the wooden dairy house with tiling of whites in which are incorporated two sixteen-tile blue tableaux with a horse with front view of a stilt and a cow with rear view; the original fireplace (high fireplace mantel) with cheek and mouldings; the beamed ceiling with hole for the churn pole (sealed); the pump and the red-tiled floor; further, in the residential part, the central long corridor onto which the rooms open, the panelled doors (now flat-boarded) and the window seats. In the fine room (best room) on the south-west side a fireplace with mantel furnished with carved brackets and mouldings and a bedstead wall (bedsket) with double panelled doors; only the (child's) bed alcove and the china cabinet (diggelkast) in the middle are still preserved; the second bed alcove functions, retaining the door, as a passage; the china cabinet still has the original arrangement with gold-bordered red paintwork. The dairy cellar, now used as a storage place, is still largely in its original state with a floor of dark blue terrazzo, traces of 'dairy blue' wall paint, Danish cooling tanks and similar. After losing its agricultural function the fittings of the barn were extensively rebuilt; the pine roof truss bintwork remained however largely intact.

Valuation

STILT FARMHOUSE from 1889 with older attached dairy cellar of general cultural-historical, architectural-historical and urban-planning importance: - on account of the architectural qualities and the imposing appearance; - on account of the older dairy cellar incorporated in the renewed stilt with modern facilities installed around 1880 which clearly demonstrate the scientific insights into dairy production at the turning point to factory-scale production; - on account of the externally slightly impaired at subordinate points and otherwise intact exterior in artisanal-traditional building style with some Neoclassical components, such as cornice and dormers; - on account of the presence of a number of valuable interior components; - on account of the presence of the original pine roof truss; - on account of the partly still free position - an essential factor for the perception of farmhouse, historically important plot and landscape surroundings; - on account of the high historical value and age of the plot; - on account of the presence of a historic orchard with pomologically interesting fruit varieties of considerable age; - on account of the strikingly elevated position relative to the surroundings on a historically important plot which is moreover still largely moated and provided with a windbreak.