Swedish photos

Swedish military and soldiers croft.

As early as the 1680s, the quartermaster general Erik Dahlberg drew up sketches of what a soldier's croft would look like. Initially, the rules were vague, but in some regions there were detailed instructions that the farmers had to follow. If the farmers did not have the opportunity to build a croft, they had to house the soldier in another way.

The croft was usually built on the property of the largest farm, the so-called stem root or main root, and was usually built next to a village or country road. It would be easy and quick to get to the exercise site. The croft was usually located separate from the regular buildings. Another typical location was on the very border between the village's land and the surrounding forest.

Initially, the dimensions of the croft were eight cubits long (4.75 meters), seven cubits wide (4.1 meters) with a vestibule and chambers. In addition to the croft, there would be a cattle house six cubits long (3.5 meters) and five cubits wide (2.9 meters), a six cubit square shed and a barn with a lodge. During most of the 18th century, most crofts had the above dimensions. Variations occurred depending on the landscape, but gradually the most common dimensions of a croft were 12 cubits long, 8 cubits wide, which corresponds to approximately 7.1 x 4.8 meters or approximately 35 m2 and 9 feet high (2.7 meters) including the outer roof. The foundation consisted of stone. The soldiers' crofts were low with high thresholds and lacked an interior ceiling and were therefore open up to the roof ridge. All heat from the open hearth rose up to the ridge and the heating of the croft therefore became very inefficient.

A simple drawing of a soldier's croft, with the small "chamber" = room, cabin and stove.

The stove where people burned fire for warmth and also cooked food.

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Old Cottages

Back Cottage ( Backstuga) was originally a cottage which was located in a hill. In earliest times sometimes partially buried in a hillside (cavern), like this in Västergötland. There were people who lived here until the late 1800's!