Haus Nordherringen

Haus Nordherringen, also the Torksburg, was a medieval water fortress in Herringen. It stood on an island formed by the Herringer Bach and the Lippe, with the river protecting its northern side and the brook feeding a 300 m-long moat to the south. Before the Lippe was straightened in the late 19th century, the remains of its foundations could still be seen on the meadows beside the old bridge to Münsterland. Researchers still debate whether the counts of Mark built it around 1187 as a bridgehead against Münster or whether it replaced the nearby Homburg after its destruction early in the 13th century. The first written mention comes between 1312 and 1327, when Hermann Volenspit founded a chapel on the estate. The Volenspit family, who held the site for much of the 14th century, used it mainly as a base while they expanded their lands elsewhere in the region. Today the castle itself has vanished, its stones reused and the site covered by the Datteln-Hamm Canal. Inside the 1771–75 Catholic church, fragments of 16th-century masonry from the old fortress are built into the walls. Outside, the Lippe’s former course is marked by a dead arm, and the broad meadows still show the low lines where the moat once ran.