Hammertal (Ruhr area)

Landscape in the area of the Hammertal at Hof Niedergethe (left) in Niedersprockhövel

Stone house at the end of the Hammertal, 1906

The Hammertal (partly also Hammerthal) is a valley and a cultural landscape within the hilly landscape between Witten , Sprockhövel and Hattingen-Blankenstein . The Hammertal road of the same name connects Niedersprockhövel via Witten-Buchholz with the An der Kemnade area near Haus Kemnade in the Ruhr meadows .

The valley is drained from the Pleßbach north to the Ruhr. In terms of traffic, it served in the past on the coal road from Witten to Sprockhövel, the small railway Bossel – Blankenstein and in the present the federal motorway 43 and the state road 551 as a traffic route.

The Hammertal is named after the mechanical forge hammers that were established in the 19th century and were driven by waterwheels from the Pleßbach . During the same period, mining in the Hammertal switched to hard coal (see Glueckauf Barmen colliery ), making the valley one of the early sites of Ruhr mining .

Away from the A 43, the L 551 and the commercial settlements, the Hammertal has been able to partially retain its rural character.

literature

Karin Hockamp, Fritz Stracke: Giver of strength in old times - the water of the Pleßbach created a basis for the economic development of the Sprockhövel area. (PDF; 142 kB) Sprockhövel city archive, January 13, 1999, accessed on December 30, 2012 .
Historical foray through the Hammertal . In: City magazine Witten . 92, August / September, 2014, p. 6-7 .