ERIH-Ankerpunt BAKSTEEN- EN DAKPANMUSEUM BUITENGOED DE PANOVEN

Brick and Roof tile museum "Buitengoed De Panoven" is a former roof tile and brick factory from 1850 and is now transformed into a well-preserved industrial heritage site. The former factory has a unique zigzag kiln, the last zigzag kiln in all of Western Europe still intact. Until 1924, four products were fired at the Panoven: roof tiles, tiles, drainage pipes and bricks. After 1924, the main product became artisanal bricks for the private housing market.

For nearly one hundred years, the then factory has been run by the Kruitwagen family. A family with a tradition of over three hundred years of brick making. In 1983, the last brickmaker, Wim Kruitwagen put out the fire. Today, the Kruitwagen family and Hajenius manage and develop the heritage in a sustainable way.

To preserve and develop the heritage, we as a family are looking at sustainable revenue models and smart maintenance concepts. After all, we operate without subsidies. Of your stay at the Panoven, 20% goes to preserving the heritage. You not only enjoy the heritage and its surroundings, but at the same time invest in the preservation and development of a special piece of cultural history. With these contributions, we ensure that you can continue to enjoy yourself far into the future!

Buitengoed de Panoven is located in Zevenaar just at the junction of the Liemers and the National Landscape De Gelderse Poort. The area in which de Panoven is located is characterized by water and clay. The water has shaped the characteristic landscape. The result is a beautiful river landscape with dead river arms, islands, wheels and gullies, marshes and overflow areas, riparian forests and flowery grasslands. The Rijnstrangen consisting of former Rhine arms, is part of National Landscape the Gelderse Poort, an almost contiguous nature reserve of about 20,000 hectares (Netherlands and Germany together).

ERIH Anchor Point

Since 1983, commercial production at brickworks de Panoven has ended. Everything is preserved and on display: the machines still working properly, the sheds for drying the bricks, tools and, of course, the large zigzag kiln from 1924, the last one in Western Europe. A museum offers information on local stone production with excursions into this long history of handicrafts from Roman times to the present. Nature experiences spread the clay pits in the area, where the clay for the bricks was extracted. A valuable biotope has developed here today.

Mr. Wim Kruitwagen about De Panoven

Mr. Kruitwagen experienced the modernization of brickworks De Panoven in the 1960s from close up. This period differed greatly from the time when his father still worked at the factory. Mr. Kruitwagen recounts this early history of the factory:

 "In brick factory De Panoven, tiles were also made until 1924: roof tiles. Back then the clay was still cut with a shovel, as it was called then. The clay that could be found in the area was a very easy, flexible clay. So you could mine it. It was all done with a shovel, a horse and a cart. That was then tracked onto a mound or a soil hump, as they called it then."

Different layers of clay

That clay layer was about 3.5 meters thick in its entirety here at the site. It was composed of different layers of clay, depending on the headwaters of the rivers that carried the clay here at high tide. Some of these clay layers were very pure, and so these were kept apart for tile making. Back then, the main production was actually roof tiles. The clay that contained a rock chip or a pebble was kept aside for brickmaking.

When pans and bricks were still made here and there was still a lot of manual labor, about 30 to 35 people worked here. Many people and few bricks. Yes, it used to be all manual labor. My father jokingly said, "I don't need people, I need hands. Too bad people only have two hands.' Among workers there was a steady core who stayed for years, but there were also changing people. These were people who worked here in the summer day and became a little redundant in the winter day anyway. Yes, they came back in the spring. Or others came back for them.

The mud maker

The clay maker, the mud maker, then had to knead that clay with a shovel and bare feet. Then the clay went into the press. Later when a mixer came here, the mud maker became basically obsolete. The mixer started doing that work and the clay then went straight from the clay pit into the mixer without further preparation. That's how easy that clay was. At least that saved in labor and labor costs. At most factories, that clay was tracked on large mounds. That clay was then left to rot, as it was called then, for a few years. Freezing and weathering then made the clay easier. The clay then froze. It had the purpose of rotting in the predatory soil, hence the name.

Zigzag kiln

In 1924 / 1926 they built this zigzag kiln. A dredger was also bought at that time: an excavator. It is still there and is still complete and working. But that dredge brought up all those layers mixed together. People then tried for a few years to keep making pans from that clay. But they got so many of those cracked tiles that it was no longer profitable. They then switched to brick production only. An artisanal brick for private homes. The name Panoven has stuck around all these years.

(Sources: panoven.nl, erih.net, levenindeliemers.nl/stories/75-the-name-panoven-is-remaining-hanging-all-those-years, interview: Fred Sparrenboom)