Frisian farmhouse

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A "Head-Neck-Body farmhouse" (Dutch:kop-hals-rompboerderij) is a typical frisian farmhouse. It consists of a residence (the head), the kitchen (the neck) that have been placed in front of a big shed (Body). A striking fact is that the residence was never build in the centrefront of the shed--this has to do with the origin of this type of farmhouses, as a smaller vanished type of farmhouse. This original old-frisian longhouse existed out of a residence with straight behind it a cattle stable. The harvest was stacked on the attic or in high open barns which were logically located near the stable.

Due to the development of better harvesting materials in the beginning of the 16th century there was a necessary of more storage for the harvest. This was solved by building a bigger shed behind the residence and neck-part of the original farmhouse.

These farmhouses can be found in Friesland, Groningen and (in the northern part of) North Holland. Although sometimes considered as typical Frisian, the origin of this kind of farmhouse is to be found in the Het Bildt county where for the first time intensive agriculture bloomed; the Bildt was exceptionally suitable for harvesting big parts of land. Because the harvest quantities became larger, the inhabitants, who were mostly of South Holland origin, were one of the first in need of bigger storage and common overthrows gradually developed into big closed sheds. Though there is a distinct difference between the typical Frisian farmhouses in northern provences and the Bildts farmhouses, only the Bildts farmhouses have the caracteristic that the sheds are right-angled placed on the residential part of the house. These days both types can be found in the Bildt.