Kildebjerg
Intro
The part of the forest named The Hammer, which you stand in the middle of right now, lies on the hill top of Kildebjerg – the one that gave its name to the district and the golf course Kildebjerg Ry.
An enclosure map of the village of Siim from 1783 shows that the fields around the hill top were also named after Kielbierg, as it was previously called. North of this part of the forest was Store Kielbierg Blokker, where today you will find cubist-designed apartment buildings and detached houses. To the east lay Kielbierg Fields, where today densely-built, single storey houses have been constructed, whilst south of the forest was Kielbierg Blok, which is now a commercial area.
Before the enclosure movement, the fields were jointly cultivated by the farmers in the village of Siim. The name of the fields was important when villagers had to plan communal activities. They knew the location of the individual fields based on the field names. All farms had long, narrow strip-fields located in between the other farm plots, so farmers had to coordinate their efforts both for sowing and reaping. They had to work the land together.
But in 1767 the farmers in Siim succeeded in buying their own tenant farms at an auction. They were released from ancient feudal restrictions, became freeholders and responsible for their own land.
Some years later, the chartered surveyor Lindenhan drew up a map showing how the large number of previously small lots had been amalgamated into farms with fewer and larger fields, and he also showed new boundaries and new roads. He took into account the fertility of the land, and assigned each farm both good and poorer land, as well as woods and meadows. In this way, the enclosure movement was completed and the farmers freed themselves from the constraints of the old village communal life.
If you take a closer look at the plan of Ry Station-town you will discover that Lindenhans’ boundaries and title numbers have been crucial for the way the town has grown up since then. The farmers regularly sold lots, which were then sub-divided into small plots and developed with houses, workshops and shops around the station.
As time went on, the town grew along Lindenhans’ roads and swallowed up the original village of Siim, which today lies in the middle of the town’s commercial district.