Jasperskotten

The Jasperskotten stands in Wuppertal-Ronsdorf beside the Gelpe stream, a small tributary in the Bergisches Land. It is the remains of a former grinding works, a Schleifkotten, built in 1671 on ground once called Saalscheid. The site lies about 175 metres downstream from the vanished Tippelskotten and 200 metres upstream from the house of the Käshammer. The whole area is protected as an archaeological monument. The place is worth seeing because it shows how early industry used water power. In 1829 the works had two large and two small grindstones plus a polishing disc driven by an overshot wheel of four horsepower. Engelbert Jansen ran the site with hired grinders such as Abraham Berger, who sharpened mainly drills. After Jansen’s death his sons carried on under the name Gebr. Jansen until August Jaspers took over in 1890. The last building was demolished in 1927, but traces remain. Visitors find a long, silted hammer pond with a narrow headrace still fed from the Tippelskotten’s tailrace. The pond’s edge is marked by a low earth-and-stone wall, and above it sits the hollow of the old ice house. On the right bank of the Gelpe a woodland path runs past a single surviving stretch of wall, one metre by five, built of sandstone blocks above and brick below. Below the path the foundations of the workshop lie buried under grass, while the modern stream is lined with stone slabs where it crosses the headrace to the Käshammer.