About Birkenes Bygdemuseum
Birkenes Bygdemuseum was established as a foundation in 1987.
The museum manages buildings on several locations, but the main location is the Grasham farm at Tveide.
Grasham is a farm museum with several historic buildings from the 1800s and 1900s.
The buildings include a farmhouse from the early 1800s, a barn from the 1840s and a complete carpenter workshop from the early 1900s.
Several buildings have signs with information in English and Norwegian.
The museum focuses on rural history from around 1850-1960, as well as crafts and small businesses of Birkenes.At Grasham, visitors can experience different authentic craft workshops and small industry environments. Out in-door exhibitions feature objects from the history of Birkenes and the Lillesand-Flaksvandsbanen railway.
In 2013, the museum’s new main building opened. This is an innovative multi-purpose building.
Here, the museum runs its own cultural kindergarten, and we have got plenty of space for storage rooms, office rooms, exhibitions and a cafe. The assembly room, the Knutson hall, is popular to hire for events or celebrations.
The museum is usually open on:
several Sundays in July
one Sunday around the middle of August
one Sunday in late November/early December.
For groups, it is also possible to arrange guidings outside of the summer season.
Myhre peat litter factory
Myhre Torvstrøfabrikk (Myhre peat litter factory) was established at Tveide in 1895. It is Norway’s only surviving factory of its kind. Based on the rich peat bogs in the area, the factory was the first and largest peat litter factory in Southern Norway. It produced peat litter from 1896 to 1957. The buildings were then left to decline, and the roof collapsed after a heavy snowfall in 1987. The machinery was still intact.
The entire factory was restored and opened as an industrial museum in 1990, as a part of Birkenes Bygdemuseum. After the successful restoration, the factory received the Councils Award for Protection of Historic Buildings in 1993.
Now, many years later, the factory is closed, as it needs further restoration.
Log driving buildings at Flaksvann
Birkenes Bygdemuseum also manages historic buildings at Flaksvann, related to the log driving industry: an old log boom house and a log drivers cabin.