Oberrödinghauser Hammer, Industrial heritage site in Menden, Germany.
Oberrödinghauser Hammer is a hammer mill on federal road B515 in the Oberrödinghausen district of Menden, opposite the Rheinkalk lime works. Two water wheels once drove a 70-kilogramme tilt hammer and a 300-kilogramme stave hammer; the water came from the Hüttenspring spring and was stored in a hammer pond.
Max Theodor von Dücker founded the Alte Hammer in 1751 as part of the Rödinghauser Eisenfabrik; a document of that year records it. Its main products were fire grates and ploughshares. From the early 20th century the Rheinisch-Westfälische Kalkwerke used the site as a forge until it closed in 1955.
The mill's products were fire grates and ploughshares, made for the Rödinghauser Eisenfabrik founded by Max Theodor von Dücker. In its last decades the Rhenish-Westphalian Potash Works ran the hammer as a forge until 1955, so the site records both ironworking and the later lime industry of Oberrödinghausen.
The hammer mill stands on the B 515 federal road, directly opposite the Rheinkalk lime-processing plant in Oberrödinghausen. It is viewed from the roadside; the site itself is not entered. The B 515 is the approach road, and the mill is identified by its position facing the plant.
The Hüttenspring spring fed a hammer pond that supplied the two water wheels; the wheels in turn drove a 70-kilogramme tilt hammer and a 300-kilogramme stave hammer. The site is on the B 515, opposite the Rheinkalk lime works.
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