The Langkildegaard farm is located in Lunde Parish, Sunds Herred, Svendborg County, Egebjerg Municipality. This is a couple of miles north of Svendborq, which is the closest big town.  It is a large farm. The main building was built in 1844. Langkildegaard Estate covers a total of 350 acres.  The farm has a big rich forest nearby which makes it isolated. Over time some of the forest has been cut down. These clearings were called links, and with several links cut, it looked like a wedge had been cut into the forest. “A wedge in Danish is called a kile” so the farm was named Langkildegaard.

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The three children of Rasmus Hansen responded to laws that required all Danes to adopt fixed surnames. Previously, as in neighboring Sweden and Norway, Denmark mostly followed a patronymic system in which children took the father’s first name as a surname, adding –sen (“son,” spelled søn until the late 1700s) for boys and –datter (“daughter”) for girls.  Rasmus’ children took the farm name as their last name, Langkilde.

 

There is much evidence that at one time the farm was a fort. Several  artifacts have been found in support of this. For instance, part of a water wheel has been found along with  broken pieces of rocks along part of a dike north east of the main building. A name plate was also found and it is kept at the archives. It is dated from the 1700's and is inscribed with the name of Matt Griss.

The buildings lost a lot of their original look, so they no longer have walls made of half timber. The original buildings were made of half timber and burned bricks, with thatched roofs. 

 

The buildings burned down to the ground in the year 1802. Hans Hansen Langkilde was the owner at the time. He also leased additional land there which he also farmed.Neither he nor his family were home at the time of the fire because they had gone to “Egeskov” (a big castle nearby).  While at Egeskov they saw the fire but did not know it was their home burning to the ground.  During their stay,   Rasmus’ wife gave birth to their youngest son. 

 

Langkildegaard re-built the following year. The new buildings were built bigger than before and some improvements were made. The main house was built a little away from the rest of the buildings. Like the original buildings, the new ones were built again with half timber wood and burned bricks. The main house had a tile roof. The other buildings were built in a square arrangement with a big courtyard in the middle. The insurance was enough to help with the improvements. Hans Hansen Langkilde and his wife were well off. They both had come from prosperous families.

 

The entrance road had a wide archway, so when you entered, the first thing you saw was the main building. The floors in the main house and ceiling were wood. There were several small rooms for the children and two maids. There was also a big room for parties and a living room with a big fireplace and a big pot hanging over it. The kitchen was a big room with a big table and benches around it. It also had a big fireplace with a big pot hanging over it. All the meals were prepared and cooked there.  Everyone ate at the big table in the kitchen. There was also a big oven in the kitchen where they baked all their own bread. Next to the kitchen was a big pantry with a root cellar.  There was also a glass door in the living room opening out to the garden. The family made their own butter, cheese, and candles. 

 

The next building housed a chicken coop. one person would be assigned to take  care of the chickens. There was a horse stall with room for 16 horses. The cow barn could hold 26 cows and there was also enough room for the 8 permanent hired hands who were there at all times. There was room for even more hired hands when needed! It took four horses to pull the plows in the fields. The square layout of the buildings had a big opening towards the fields.  

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As mentioned on ChatGPT, the name Langkilde is of Scandinavian origin and consists of two parts: "Lang" and "kilde."

"Lang" is a common element in many Scandinavian names, and it means "long" or "tall." In this context, it refers to something that is of considerable length or height.

The second part of the name, "kilde," is also common in Scandinavian names and is derived from the Old Norse word "kelda," which means "spring" or "source." This word was often used to describe a natural spring or well, which was an important source of water for people living in the region.

So, taken together, "Langkilde" can be interpreted to mean "long spring" or "long source." It is possible that the name originally referred to a place where there was a particularly long or wide natural spring or stream, or it could have been used as a surname for someone who lived near such a spring or who worked as a water carrier or a well-digger.