Arfelder Hammer (Historic Ironworks)

Arfelder Hammer where you can also dare

blb-tourismus.de/region-kultur/sehenswertes/schmiedemuseum-arfeld

Nice location which is also used as registry office!

The Arfelder Hammer 1707 - 1857
The Arfelder Hammer was one of ten iron hammers in the county of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein in the 18th century. On February 20, 1707, Count Henrich-Albert, known for his religious tolerance, granted a concession for the construction of an iron hammer in the district of Sand to a foreigner and six inhabitants of Arfeld. These seven daring men built the hammer as their own property at their own expense.
Ederaufwärts they put on a shrubbery and led over a hammer ditch the water on oberschlägige water wheels to drive the hammer and blow waves. The count only demanded a water rate of 10 Reichstalern annually, in order to create new jobs in his overpopulated country and oppose the impoverishment.
The pig iron was purchased in exchange for charcoal from Dillenburg. It was mainly forged bar iron for the production of nails and weaker profile iron.
A larger profit expectation was not fulfilled. Often all Wittgensteiner hammers were still (in winter by frozen water ditches and in summer because of too little water).
Due to the ever-increasing extraction of hard coal in the 19th century, the iron extraction was favored in other areas. The Wittgenstein iron hammers became completely unprofitable and ceased their operation. In 1857 the hammer was finally auctioned off.
As the last relic of the Arfelder Hammerzeit, the residential house on the Hammergraben has been preserved.
heimatverein-arfeld.de/pages/historie/arfelder-hammer.php