A "Head-Neck-Body farmhouse" ( nl, kop-hals-rompboerderij) or Head-Neck-Rump farmhouse is a typical
Frisian farmhouse
FarmHouse (FH) is a social Fraternities and sororities in North America, fraternity founded at the University of Missouri on April 15, 1905. It became a national organization in 1921. Today FarmHouse has 33 active chapters and four associate ch ...
.
[Vollmer, Manfred et al. (2001). ''Landscape and Cultural Heritage in the Wadden Sea Region'', Wadden Sea Ecosystem No. 12 - 2001, CWSS, Wilhelmshaven, p. 323. ISSN 0946-896X.] It consists of a
residence
A residence is a place (normally a building) used as a home or dwelling, where people reside.
Residence may more specifically refer to:
* Domicile (law), a legal term for residence
* Habitual residence, a civil law term dealing with the status ...
(the head) and a kitchen (the neck) placed in line in front of a big shed (the body). A striking fact is that the residence was never built in the centre front of the shed – this has to do with the origin of this type of farmhouse from a smaller type of farmhouse that has now disappeared. This original
Old Frisian longhouse
Old Frisian longhouses were, as the name indicates, long-bodied houses which can be found in the Dutch province Friesland. This type of house had more than two different parts behind or beside each part. It is the forerunner of the " Head-Neck-Bo ...
consisted of a residence with a
cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...
shed
A shed is typically a simple, single-story roofed structure that is used for hobbies, or as a workshop in a back garden or on an allotment. Sheds vary considerably in their size and complexity of construction, from simple open-sided ones de ...
immediately behind it. The harvest was stacked in the attic or in open barns which were logically located near the livestock shed.
Due to the development of better harvesting materials at the beginning of the 16th century there was a need for more storage space for the harvest. This was solved by building a bigger shed behind the 'head and neck' of the original farmhouse.
These farmhouses can be found in
Friesland
Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...
,
Groningen
Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...
and (in the northern part of)
North Holland
North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a ...
. Although sometimes considered as typically Frisian, the origin of this kind of farmhouse is found in the
Het Bildt
Het or HET may refer to:
Science and technology
* Hall-effect thruster, a type of ion thruster used for spacecraft propulsion
* Heavy Equipment Transporter, a vehicle in the US Army's Heavy Equipment Transport System
* Hobby–Eberly Telescope, a ...
county
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
where for the first time intensive agriculture flourished; the Bildt was especially suitable for harvesting large areas of land. Because harvest quantities became larger, the inhabitants, who were mostly of
South Holland
South Holland ( nl, Zuid-Holland ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.7 million as of October 2021 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely ...
origin, were some of the first who needed more storage and ordinary open barns gradually developed into large, enclosed sheds.
Although there is a distinct difference between the typical Frisian farmhouses in northern provinces and the
Bildts farmhouses, only the Bildts farmhouses have the feature whereby the sheds are placed at right-angles to the residential part of the house. These days both types can be found in the Bildt.
Image:farmhousedev1.jpg, Drawing of an earlier "longhouse type"
Image:farmhousedev.jpg, Drawing of an earlier "longhouse type" in evolution
References
External links
A German language book from 1885 on the Frisian Farmhouse, heavily illustrated.
{{European farmhouse types
Farmhouses
Vernacular architecture
Agricultural buildings in the Netherlands