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The part of our community Järfälla where we live is called Kallhäll. It´s situated 30 km outside Stockholm. A long time ago there were just small farms and mansions here, but in the beginning of our century a new factory was built here. The land prices were much cheaper here than in the centre of Stockholm. It was situated quite close
to the Lake Mälaren - which gave a possibility to transport the products. When the factory was situated here, the society began to grow. The owners had houses built for the workers, and a shop and a school came after. This is the origin of our modern society here in Kallhäll.Before we went down to the old factory we met at Kallhäll Station. The way to the old factory took 15 minutes and the way was nearly 2 km long. We passed some of the houses where the factory workers had lived.
The houses are big and red with white corners. They are made of wood and have many big windows. They are 85 years old. One is called the "Glasshouse" and one the "Basehouse". Each house is divided into four flats. Every flat contains one room, a kitchen and a hall. Pentry, cellar and a wardrobe everybody had in common in the old days. The houses have been renovated and have changed colours many times. There are still people living in the houses.
The Bolinder´s were famous because of their cast iron products. In the factory they produced housekeeping stuff for example frying pans, pots, meat mincers, plates and ovens. In our school we have a show case with samples from the factory. There are also some pictures in Kolarängskolan which show a lot of people who are working to make parts to machines they made at the factory.
The houses at Bolinder´s factory are made of bricks. The houses have been here since 1907. The roof of the buildings are like two staircases going towards each other and meeting at the top. The walls are made of brickstones and are red. They are quite dirty and old. In the Bolinder´s factory there are many windows. They are quite big as the light was necessary. The owners saved a lot of money and energy if they used the daylight as much as they could.
The windows have small squares, because if one square would break you just had to change the small part and not the whole big one.
In the top front there is a circle round window with a white grating and there´s also a stepgable. They put the windows high up because the light also had to come in from the top.
There is a firestation outside the factory. It almost looks like a church with a high tower. The colour is dark red-brown and it´s made of bricks. It was built in 1954 and belonged to the factory. It has three chimneys and three doors, two big and one small. They are also dark red-brown. On the tower there are three windows with shutters. The building is low and quite big. It´s a little bit dirty but quite clean considering the age.
The office house is white and has white window frames nowadays, but in the beginning it looked like a wholesale dealer's villa, and was made of wood. It´s a mansionlooking house, and we think the workers and their families were quite impressed by the size.
The Bolinder factory has an eagle as a company symbol. That eagle is located on the top of the entrance to the head office. The eagle has wings royally strechted out, and his head is looking to the right. His mouth is opened and it looks like he´s guarding the entrance. Once upon a time the eagle was golden, but now ninety years later the golden surface has been washed off by rain and snow.
Under the eagle´s feet there are two lamps which are lightning up the whole courtyard. A statue of a lion stands outside the old office building. The lion is green blue. The lion is made of copper. They have lions here presumably because it´s a big and strong animal. They wanted the office to be powerful. The lion has a big and strong face.
The statue of the founder Eric August Bolinder is also standing outside the office. It´s a verdigrised bust of copper. Eric August was the founder of the Bolinder´s factory. The statue is standing on a base and it´s about 140 cm high. On the statue Eric August is dressed in a suit. He has short sniped hair and wears a beard.
Beside Bolinder´s office there is a little yellow billiard house with green corners. The windows have small white squares, and they are very dirty, but if you look through them you can see an old billiard table. On the walls you can see old pictures of people who worked at Bolinders a long time ago, and they spent a lot of spare time in this house! It was not the people who worked in the factory of course, it was people with a higher level of work, foremen, who played billiard there. In 1956 the factory closed down, as they couldn´t compete with other Swedish cast iron factories. Many companies nowadays rent room in these houses. Inside the houses they work with recycling and painting for instance. Our part of the community is no longer depending on an iron factory that controls both economy, shop and school.
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