This text I have translated from Swedish and can be found in it's original form here In 2012, the Axelsson family celebrated 100 years Engstorp. It was 1912 as the family
John and Jenny Axelsson bought and moved to Engstorp with his sons Anders 12 years, Ave (Adolf) 9 years and Sven 6 years, and John's children from previously married Selma, Abbe (Albert), Si (Signe), Acke (Axel), and Elsa. There was also an apartment on Bergsgatan on Kungsholmen where the older children partly lived and where Anders, Ave and Sven lived in the winter when they went in Klara Folkskola and Kungsholms realskola. John paid SEK 10,000 for the buildings on the croft. The croft was a Crown lease to the state. The lease was in the 1950s a few hundred kronor. The lease covered 16 acres (8 ha), of which 2 acres for horticulture, 4 meadows and pastures and 10 forest land for grazing, Hönsholmen and Ormholmen were included. In addition fishing waters.
The croft they came to looked almost the same as today. It consisted of Stugan, barn, Lillstugan by the lake, the laundry room, the woodshed, the food cellar? and the outdoor toilet. In Hagen there was a buried earth cellar. The houses remain today but some are partially rebuilt.
The croft was named after the General Staff map as Barkarby croft, and located within Barkarby farm property where it goes down to Lake Mälaren. All Lovös old farms around the church had land that stretched down to the lake. Originally, the croft was probably a fishing croft the farm. When Kajsa Hermodsson took with the tenants' association's members to the National Archives and we got to look in the books, Barkarby croft was mentioned in the documents from 1696. I the book stated that the parish gave someone thin grain to the croft, as then maybe was a poor croft. About Barkarby croft was in the same place now as 1696 and if the cottage is the same I know not. It may have been moved. The cottage is originally a so-called single cottage, with a room and kitchen. It is knuttimrad (a traditional way of building). On the south side has one room was built in the 19th century, that is built in half-timber, but instead of masonry stone, the walls consist of masonry made of wooden blocks. To the north two rooms were built at an angle in the 1890s. The croft had a telephone since 1904, when the summer guest Arvid Lindman, Director General of the National Telecom Agency, later Minister of State, rented the cottage. Previously known owners of the croft was fisherman Ekroth, where a relative, Ted, today owns a property on Lambarudd, and then editor Hellgren.
The former barn had burned down. A new one was built on 1890s, with reclining timber. There was place for two cows, a horse, pigs and chickens. In front was a "vandring" where the grain was ground using the force from the horse walking around attached to a rod. The new barn was moved away from the residential building due to health reasons, which was new at the time.
The croft was one, at the beginning of the 20th century, of Lovön's garden masters that
helped to support Stockholm with vegetables, fruits, flowers and potatoes and reed mats. They also fished with nets to sell at the market trade on Munkbron.
The transport into the city took place with the steamboat from the pier at Lambarudd, where they went by horse and wagon or with the rowing boat from the croft jetty. During the thirties, the garden centre at Engstorp was leased out to the Edvin Börjesson family, who previously leased at Ensta. In the 1910's and 20s, there was a team yard man on the croft
named Pettson, a sat Smålander known as "old Pettson" (Gubben Pettson) long before the children's books came. There were many stories about old Pettson, like when the old man told me at home that he met a tall old man with a rifle in the woods who asked -
"Have you seen any hares? ”
"What did you answer then?
Pettson? "Hares, it's f-ing dripping with them ”.
Then are stories of when the people met Gustaf V in the forest on Lovö. Old Pettson was
driven to dig the ditches, and commented with: “It is best to dig ditches when there are rocks and a lot of roots, so that you are constantly pissed off ”.
Since John Axelsson passed away 1935 and his wife Jenny 1938, the sons divided Engstorp. Anders built in the 30s about the laundry room to a two-story house for his family, his wife
Elise and daughter Ingegerd. Lillstugan, which was next door, was rented out to the brother
Abbe with his wife Ella. Ave built himself 1946-47 a brand new house in the field.
Closer to the cape/peninsula, two small ones were built - sports cabins.
Ave was first married to Karin, who died in 1943, and had with her her children Marianne, Janne and Gunilla, and the "foster child" Berran (Bert). 1950 Ave married Maud, and had children Beatrice and Maria.
The oldest testimony of how Engstorp looked like I have heard from my grandmother Elvira, as 1896, then 19 years gammal, visited Engstorp with her mother Hedvig Winqvist to rent for summer. Engstorp was already rented out so the ladies continued to Dyvik, where they rented from the Brewitz family. The Winqvist family with children rented a place to live in Dyvik until 1955. Elvira, married Fogelström with her husband Erik and the children Gunnar and Margit. The children's playmates were Sven Brewitz, Britta and Greta Bäckström (married Söderberg), from Norrby and also the boys from Engstorp. So my mother Margit and father Sven Axelsson met early as children and over the years became a couple who took over the cottage at Engstorp, where almost all free time was spent with their children Kerstin and Leif. The children's playmates were the cousins on the croft and the children on Lambarudd, Maggan, Lotta, Bettan, Kalle and Svenne Faringer, Janne, Kristina and Ulf Tegelmark and Anders and Pelle Björhammar, Hasse Öberg and Gunilla and Zaida and Claes-Göran Eklund. It was a whole bunch of young people in the summer. In the 50's we had the Olympics in athletics every summer. Of the young people, Margareta, Charlotta, Elisabeth, Sven and Per and their respective families today have their houses on Lambarudd. From 1938 to the beginning of the 70's, the houses on the croft became summer cottages, sometimes rented out in the summer.
In 1973, Leif and his wife Anita and children John and Jenny settled permanently in the old cottage. In the 1980s, Maria settled with her husband Jan-Inge and their children Gustaf and Viking in Ave's house in field (Hagen). And around 1990, it became possible to buy the plots around the houses. Today, Ingegerd, Ingegerd currently spends two months a year in her cottage (The Little Cottage, Lillstugan) and the rest of the time with her husband Lloyd and their children with their families in the USA. Maria and her family live partly permanently, in their part of Engstorp, Aves' cottage in Hagen. Leif and Anita live permanently in the cottage with a dog and chickens. Their daughter Jenny lives with her husband Johan and daughter Alexandra in their house at Barkarby farm. Their son, John, has timbered a guest house on the plot but lives with his wife Suzanne and their three children in Liljeholmen. John and Jenny's playmate Marcus Kullman lives today with his family in the former gardener's home at Lambarudd. The 100th anniversary was celebrated for two days with 46 relatives one day and 30 neighbours the next day in 2012. There were a lot of stories and fun to remember. We can tell you about that another time
In the words of Leif Axelsson (my father-in-law)
