At the municipality, they knew that we were working intensively on the museum. The industrial estate was expanded, and the Janssen farm (Verdellenplaats) had to make way for this expansion. It was an old building, so we received an offer from the municipality to move the old barn, as far as possible.

Thijs Pubben from Venlo had been commissioned by the municipality of Horst to conduct research into that farm. His book, entitled “From Clay to Stone”, had just been published in the series “Horster Historieën”. We contacted him and went together to see the large barn in Horst on the Hesselenweg. It was immediately clear, the barn had historical value, especially the construction of the trusses impressed everyone. The construction method of centuries ago, first erecting a rough wooden construction and only then carrying out the masonry all around, was applied here.

It was quickly decided to start the demolition, we had already gained some experience in Veulen near Venray, where we had demolished a barn. The set-up and agreement for a demolition building was always: take the usable with you, leave excess waste and debris lying around. This was mutually beneficial.

Soon we started collecting the roof tiles, which we then placed on pallets. It was sometimes dangerous work. From the top, from the ridge, debris sometimes slid down between us.

Thijs Pubben had made a drawing of the wooden construction of the roof. A numbering was put on the beams and on the drawing, this would make the construction of the building easier. A contractor was called in for the transport of the heavy beam construction. Some of the masonry bricks were also collected, mostly only from the outer walls. Sraar Beerkens, board member, arranged the organization of the transport to Open Air Museum de Locht.

It was decided to create more storage space under the barn, by first building a cellar. The Theunissen company from IJselsteyn was commissioned to do this. Also on the advice of Thijs Pubben, it was decided to use wolf ends at the end of the barn in the construction of the barn, this was already common in the period of the construction of this building. A lowered “high barn door” was also made as it had originally been present in the building.

After the battens were attached, the tiles were placed on the roof by volunteers. After this, a roofing company moved the tiles and also placed the straw dolls underneath. During construction, we had mowed a field of rye on the Koppertweg. The straw dolls were made from that rye, which were needed to place under the Old Dutch roof tiles. This will seal the pans and also make them more secure.

I would like to mention here that Lou Wijnhoven carried out the reconstruction of the monumental roof construction with the assistance of Piet Haegens, this was a difficult job.

After a lot of effort, we finally managed to carry out this job. Partly due to the efforts of various volunteers from Melderslo, the group that had also helped organize the pole vault at the Vlasven for years.

Work report 1996, Piet Lenssen