Ryttaren peat factory

Ryttarens torvström factory

The Ryttaren peat factory is located near Kättilstorp in the municipality of Falköping in Västergötland in western Sweden . Since 2012 the former factory has been protected as a Byggnadsminne ( industrial monument ) according to the provisions of the Swedish Kulturminneslag (Cultural Monument Act).

history

The agricultural scientist Nils Hartelius founded the peat corporation Ryttaren in Grimstorp in 1906. In the same year the factory was built next to the railway between Falköping and Nässjö to extract peat from the Ryttaren moor. The peat litter was mainly used in animal stalls, dry toilets and as packaging for fruit. The factory had three presses with an annual production capacity of 75,000 bales. In the high season, up to 200 people were employed in the factory and in the bog. Foreman Notarius Karlsson was operations manager from the beginning until his retirement in 1938.

The factory was bought by Hasselfors Bruks AB in 1964 to produce peat for horticulture. The mining in Ljunghemsmossen ended in 1995 and peat production stopped in 1997.

The peat factory Ryttaren is an industrial monument from the early 1900s that can still be visited today, with a factory, machine houses, workers' homes with farm buildings, sawmills and peat bogs. The Ryttaren peat factory has been operated as an open-air museum by the Föreningen Ryttarens torvströfabrik association since 1999 . In 2004 it was chosen by the Svenska Industriminnesföreningen ( German literally: Swedish Industrial Monument Association ) as the industrial monument of the year. The classification as Byggnadsminne took place in 2012.