Rope-Making @museum.de

F: Rope walks weren't just common in coastal towns – almost every Ammerland farming village had one.

M: A rope walk was the place where the rope-maker practised his craft. It's the long, straight stretch where individual thin strands were twisted into a thick rope.

F: All you needed was a fairly simple device: a rope-laying machine. It consists of a strand twister with a crank and a traveller. Since both devices have to withstand a lot of tension, they're weighted down: the traveller has a massive stone sphere on its base plate, and the strand twister stands on a box which the rope-maker's assistant would sit on.

M: Four double lengths of yarn are secured to the hooks of the strand twister and run to the traveller, which is a good distance away. The longer you want the rope to be, the greater the distance between the traveller and the strand twister. Then you start to turn the crank. First the double lengths of yarn are twisted, then the four resulting strands are given the opposite twist to form a thick rope. To ensure that everything's nice and even, the rope-maker inserts what's known as a "top" between the individual strands and gradually moves it towards the strand twister. If all has gone well, you soon end up with a nice, strong rope. It still needs to be sanded down a little to smooth out any errant fibres. Then it's given a good stretching (think tug-of-war) and finally cut free.

F: A real traditional craft that's still practised here in the Ammerland Farmhouse. You can even buy sisal rope at the ticket office – made right here on site.