A plattegrond is a plan or map. You can often find plattegronden of a house or larger areas in image collections of archives or the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (Culturel Heritage Service). I am currently doing a House History module at the university of Dundee, for which I am studying the history of a house in Bredevoort. As part of the research I found a plattegrond of the house in the collection of the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed. This plan showed the situation in … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Muuranker
14 June 2021 by 1 Comment
A muuranker [literally: wall anchor] is a wall tie, a piece of iron that is used to secure the outer wall to the timber frame of a building. If you are visiting a town where your ancestors lived, either in person or on Google Streetview, and see wall ties, you know it's an older house (say, before 1850). Some houses with wall anchors have timber frames that go back to the medieval period, when the frames would be filled with wattle and daub but have since been replaced with … [Read more...]
