De Holle Roffel

Volunteer-run crafts and tools museum in the former Reformed church of Kruisland with tools of the carpenter, blacksmith, shoemaker and more.

Opening hoursAdmission €2

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About the museum

The museum's name comes from the "holle roffel", a plane of the 17th and 18th centuries used to rough-work wood. The museum was founded on 21 December 1991; it was based on the collection of a private individual who had gathered old hand tools on a large scale.

For the first ten years the collection was housed in rooms of the local carpentry factory Jacobs on the Langeweg. When the company was expanded in the early 2000s, the museum had to move. It found a new home in the former Nederlands Hervormde Kerk of Kruisland on the Markt, a building with roots going back to 1487. Volunteers converted the church into an exhibition space while preserving its character; on 26 May 2003 it was officially put into operation as a museum.

On display are tools and machines from the early 20th century for trades that were represented in Kruisland, including bricklayer, plumber, carpenter, shoemaker, cooper, painter, thatcher, stonemason and blacksmith, as well as topics such as agriculture, livestock farming, electricity and mechanisation, and steam engines. A knitting machine and a small grain mill complete the collection. Once a year the museum organises the cycling tour "Roffelroute".

Highlights

Tool collection on the carpenter, blacksmith, shoemaker, cooper and other crafts
Museum in the former Reformed church of Kruisland
Plane collection centred on the eponymous "holle roffel"
Steam engines and machines of early mechanisation
Annual cycling tour "Roffelroute" starting from the museum

Permanent exhibition

Handwerks- und Werkzeugsammlung – Tools, machines and furnishings for crafts and trades from Kruisland, from carpenter and shoemaker to agriculture and electricity.

Founded: 1991