When I was in Denmark this summer, I went on a day tour in North Jutland. There are a couple of small towns north-west of Aalborg called Moseby and Kås. Somewhere between them you will find a disused factory - Kaas Briketfabrikk - where the buildings just stand there and decay more and more. But the factory has had a great impact on the small rural community around it, as well as on Denmark.
As we approached the building, we saw that it concists of several buildings. It is easy to imagine how this must have been buzzing with life when it was in use. There is a fence around the entire area, but it was not intact. I guess many have been here before us. We started by walking through the main building. Several of the machines and hoisting chains, or what remains of them, can still be seen. One of my companions is a craftsman and became a good "guide" in understanding how the equipment was once used.
Kås i located in «Store Vildmose», which is a large area covering the northern part of Denmark. Peat has been produced in this area since the 19th century. It started small, but in 1906 peat production really began to take off. Kaas Briquette Factory was built in 1925, but the production itself was somewhat slow at first. There were several reasons for that. It had something to do with the production methods. But in 1932 production began in earnest. A new method had been found. It was easy to "mill the peat" into powder, which was then pressed into briquettes.
This briquette factory was the first of its kind in the world. This led to people from different parts of the world coming here to learn about how briquettes were made. When WWII came, the demand became even greater. Because of that, the factory became a workplace involving the community. The employees worked in two shifts. This meant that people worked here from 5 in the morning until the evening. At its peak, 420 men and more than 220 women and children worked here. The vast majority of those who worked here were locals from the area.
Production was at its highest level from around 1930 to 1950. During this period, 600,000 tons of briquettes and an additional 450,000 tons of peat could be produced per year. Not bad for a factory of this size.
A little further away is another smaller building. From what we could see, it looked like this was where briquettes might have been loaded and transported away. It was completely empty, except for painted walls.
At the end of the area, we had to cross the fence again to get outside and to the road on the opposite side. We passed equipment that appears to have had an assembly line that may have transported peat up and into an area of the factory.
Back to where we started. The factory closed in 1965 due to declining demand. Peat was no longer used for heating. It had been replaced by oil, gas and coal. The fact that the factory closed was disastrous for the small community. Both economically and socially. It had secured them both jobs and income. After the closure, much of the land was sold and is now agricultural land. Nothing has been done with the buildings. They have been left to decay. Usually places like these can be interesting to explore. There is a history behind.
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