Audio fragment: from stinking skins to Van Haren

Grandad: Look around you, Sanne, and take a good at the surroundings. Did you know that the shoe and leather industry goes back centuries? It appeared destined for this area. 

Sanne: Really? Why’s that?

Grandad: Well, imagine, I think it was around 1600. Large families lived on the farms but there was hardly anything to eat. People grabbed any opportunity to earn a bit extra and leather tanning was highly suitable for this region.

Sanne: Sounds like a tough time, Grandad. And that tanning, tell me about it.

Grandad: Well, that’s due to the countryside here. It was actually only suitable for cattle, but the seepage water, the flowing rivers and the oak trees created the perfect conditions to tan leather. At the time, tons of hides and water were left to rot for a long time, they were then scraped clean and rinsed, and thrown into tanning pits together with the oak. After years of stinking, the skins came out flexible and soft and they were hung up in the drying loft.

Sanne: Clever, but absolutely disgusting!

Grandad: Ha ha indeed, but they didn’t really pay much attention to that dirty water in those days. They had no choice! In a bit, we will go past some of the farms that used to have such a drying loft. You can recognise them from the black horizontal shutters.