Hamm, Hill and Hayloft @museum.de

M: Now, please look up. The Dweersack is unlike the Ammerland Farmhouse in that its thatched roof extends well beyond the façade at the front. This architectural feature is known locally as a "Hamm".

F: It's practical in rainy weather... and if there's a fire! Because if the roof was ablaze, the burning thatch would land several metres in front of the entrance, ensuring that people and animals could still escape.

M: At the base of the projecting semicircle, you can see a hatch. That was used to fill the hayloft. In larger houses, the hatch was on the inside, in the hall, while smaller houses had it as part of the Hamm, the apron in front of the great door.

F: If you look closely, you'll see carved numbers on a strut to the left of the great door. They indicate the year 1532. So this building is almost 500 years old. It originally stood in the village of Rostrup on the western shore of the lake. It was acquired by the Local History Society in 1928 and initially rebuilt south of here, on the other side of the road. Furnished with 20 beds, 20 straw mattresses and cooking facilities, the Dweersack was the Ammerland region's first youth hostel!

M: In the mid-1950s, it was once again dismantled and moved here, close to the smithy, the Single Room House, and the Hirelings' House.