Site Verschaeve

Site Verschaeve is one of the best preserved flax companies from the period between the two world wars. If you want to know what the flax industry looked like in its heyday, you should definitely take a look here. Near the site is a cafeteria where walkers and cyclists can catch their breath.

A gravel road leads from the cafeteria to the site, but you can also view the installations from the towpath along the Leie.

The concrete building with the square black doors at the bottom is the rotting plant. It dates back to 1936 and contains twelve root pits - those are the spaces behind those doors. In one root pit fits about 4 tons of flax. In concrete reservoirs on top of the building, water is heated to 32 degrees and then directed to the wells. This initiates a rotting process that detaches the textile fibers from the woody core of the flax balm.

Rotting takes three to five days. Then the flax is put to dry in the typical flax chapels. The next step is the braking and swaying: breaking the neck and removing the woody residues from the textile fibers. This is done in the zwingel turbine, a machine from 1952 that is located on the top floor of the company. One pit of four tons of flax yields about 800 kilograms of textile fibers.

The special thing about site Verschaeve is that the original installations - including steam engine - have been preserved.

Heemkundige kring Cuerna occasionally organizes visits to the site: highly recommended for those who want to get to know the flax company better.

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