Culture and History

“Efterledet-måla” is most common in the municipality and it means to measure. The name derives from the late middle ages and it means newly built buildings or crofts to older farms. The first farmer at Svartbäcksmåla was the beekeeper Olof. During the 1600s it was described as a crown tenant with an associated flour mill.

Sometimes good sometimes bad. In 1628 the assets of the farm were no less than one horse, two oxen, six cows, two female pigs and one male, three sheep, two lambs, two barrels of seeds and a bucket of rye. A few years later they are unable to pay the rent.

The boat men relieve each other but the family Karp stays put. Widows with or without poor relief are housed and on the lands are several crofters. By the stream they built an 84 ells (ca 213 meters) long dam and a sawmill. In the 1870s Svartbäcksmåla area is bought by Pukebergs glassworks. They were in need of large quantities of firewood and space for their employees.

Culturally valuable settlements

During 2010 Kalmar county museum did an inventory of the old buildings in Nybro town to identify culturally valuable settlements. The inventory has been summarized in a report that shall form a basis for the municipal work to preserve the settlements cultural values. In this report you can, among other things, read about two crofts, Karpatorpet and Torpet Målen, which have been classed as especially valuable buildings and which you can visit in Svartbäcksmåla.

Karpatorpet:

”A croft environment that gives a genuine overall impression. Has probably a connection to Pukeberg’s glassworks and is therefore a part of the work’s very valuable cultural environment. Previously boat mending crofts. Two cabins and a stone basement gives the impression that it got its current shape in the early 1900s. (I.e. not projecting corners, phased panel, glass veranda and so on).”

Torpet Målen:

”A croft cabin with archaic traits and details (one-story double cottage, lying timbered with projecting corners, half French doors with 1700s type fittings etcetera) which gives high cultural value. Has also probably a connection to Pukeberg’s glassworks and is therefore a part of the work’s very valuable cultural environment.”

Torpet Målen

Charcoal kilns

By a smoking hill shaped pile works a sweating and sooty coal worker. He has over a month’s work ahead of him and he watches the kiln carefully. The fire can penetrate and make all the work undone. The stacked firewood is covered with fir twigs and coal dust and the fire is regulated with the pull through the ignition hole. The kiln is carefully structured by 150 cubic meters of wood and right next to it is the coal workers hut. Much later, when both coal and kiln have gone up in smoke, the remains are still visible in the terrain. Level or elevated circular surfaces with deviating plants. If you dig in the moss your fingers will get black from coal.

Tar valleys

The tar seeps lapping from the hole at the bottom of the tar valley. The heap of resin rich pine stumps will slowly burn during a week and the tar will be squeezed out of the tree. The tar is poured into barrels and delivered to the shipbuilding companies in Kalmar. Abandoned tar valleys can be seen as recesses in hillslopes. Some nice examples can be found north of Victoriavallen (the sports area), next to the OK-cabin and in the north-eastern part of the area.