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Jeppejul/sandbox/Tollerodden

Larvik town with Tollerodden peninsula in the foreground, wooded with Larvik church clearly visible and the Customs/Archers house to the left. Photo taken approx. 1964

Tollerodden, spelt Tolderodden until 1917, is a peninsula located in the bottom of the Larvik fjord and a part of Larvik town located on the south east coast in Norway.

The Larvik fjord is open to the southeast, so Tollerodden was the safest place in Larvik harbour and thus the town thus started at Tollerodden and the near surroundings. As Larvik grew, the commercial harbour was moved further out in the fjord and Tollerodden is kept as it was in the town’s early times.

Map from 1813 with Tolderodden to the bottom right.

Tollerodden has become world famous by the naval architect Colin Archer who was born here and had his boatyard here. He became famous for his pilot and rescue boats and the polar ship FRAM.

The name and early history

Tollerodden with the Customs house painted in 1839 .

Tollerodden means «The Customs peninsula» as a Customs house was situated here.

The name was spelt Tolderodden (with «ld») until 1917 when Norway had its second modernization of the languish replacing Danish words and spelling closer to Norwegian dialects. «Tolder/toller» means the Customs officer and «odden» means peninsula.

By coincidence, Tollerodden was owned by Niels Toller in 1667-69 and it has been speculated that the name had been spelt with «ll» in early days, but there is no evidence of that, and it is more likely that the Customs house gave name to the peninsula.

The Customs house

In the 1660’s the Customs revenue grew significantly as Larvik town was expanding and the Customs officer was a wealthy man. The Customs account 1870-71 shows that a building was built, and it became so expensive that it was sold to the officer for a reduced price. The location is very central in the harbour, so it is likely that it also served as the Customs office. Timber from the building has been dated to have been cut 1667-68. From 1686 to 1789, four known Customs officers lived there.

In 1794, the building and large property was bought by a wealthy ship owner and merchant. The house was extensively rebuilt. The roof was angled more by lowering the edge so only ground floor had windows on the sides. At the east end an extension was added as a T-building. This is basically as the building is today. In 1820 it was sold to three ship owners.

Larvik church 2020

Larvik church

Larvik church is located at Tollerodden next to the Customs property. The church was given permission to build in 1668 and was finished in 1677, the tower been added in 1762.

Laurvig Hospital

Laurvig Hospital

In 1736 Laurvig Hospital, a wooden building, was built next to the church. In 1760 it was replaced with a brick building which is today in its original shape. In the early 18-hundreds, it served as a school and today it is run by a foundation as social lodgings. «Laurvig» is the old way of spelling Larvik and spelling kept for this building.

Larvik Maritime museum

Larvik Maritime Museum, Kirkestredet 5, Tollerodden.

The building was built in 1714 as a brick building by a merchant and priest. In 1728 it was severely damaged by fire and extensive repair and changes was done. The house had different used during the years but is still in the 1730 rebuild shape. In 1850 the house became the Customs Office. Later, the building was used as a theatre, mineral water factory, knitwear factory and warehouse. In 1962 it became the maritime museum. The Maritime Museum is today it is a part of the Larvik Museum and is only open in the summer time. The Maritime museum has some of Archers drawings, but most of them are at the museum in Oslo. Larvik does not have a permanent Archer exhibition, but there are plans for a new building for a Colin Archer-center to house both the rescue boat STAVANGER and the pilot boat STRAAHOLMEN.

The breakwater harbour Skotta

In 1750 a wooden pier was built inside Tollerodden. This was destroyed many times by storms, so it was early decided to make a solid breakwater of stones. This was first started in 1770 but stopped many times and was not finished until 1805. The breakwater was again damaged several times and several extensive repairs was done. In 1835 it had the shape it has today. Now the harbour give wooden boats priority.

The Scottish Archer family to Tollerodden

The Archer house seen from the south.

William Archer was a timber and lobster merchant in Scotland. He traded with Norway and in 1819 he visited Norway and Larvik and lived there for long periods as agent for the Scotland business. The business did not go too well, so he decided to emigrate to Larvik and rather be an exporter there. He bought a sailing ship POMONA and with his wife and their eight children, sailed to Larvik in 1824 and founded an export company for timber and lobster.

In 1826 they bought the Customs/shipowner house which property still included the whole west part of Tollerodden with shoreline from the town side and all around to the southeast.

Colin was born at Tollerodden in 1832 as their twelfth child. He loved sailing as most youngsters brought up in fjords and the skerries. After school he was apprentice at a shipyard for 18 months.

William Archer’s wife with maiden surname Walker, had an uncle in Australia and when business did not go too well in Norway too, their sons were sent to the uncle in New South Wales, a bit inland from Sydney, where they started sheep farming.

Tolderodden Conservation Park, Eidsvold, Queensland, Australia

The older Archer brothers, although born in Scotland and some teenagers when emigrated, loved Tollerodden, Larvik and Norway. They therefore named several places they acquired of new land in Australia with Norwegian names. After some years near Sidney, the brothers started exploiting areas further north to find better farming land. One place they stopped at was 700 kilometers further north, and northwest of Brisbane. They called the place Eidsvold (spelt the old way with «ld») named after the town where the Norwegian Constitution was formed and signed in 1814. They also named an area Tolderodden, now known as Tolderodden Conservation Park.

Colin Archer joined his brothers

In 1851 Colin’s father found a ship bound for America and sent him off to join his elder brothers in Australia. After meeting a brother in California and one in Hawaii, he ended up in Australia after two years travel and adventure. When Colin arrived, they had decided to move to the new place and Colin thus became part owner of the new farm. The new place was located near to what is now known as Rockhampton and they called their farm Gracemere after one of the brothers’ wife. The buildings still exist and is now known as Gracemere Homestead.

When the parents were getting old, the brothers decided to return home in 18 months shifts to look after them. A sister was also still living at home. Colin was no. 2 and arrived home in 1861. He was then well off with income from his part ownership in the farm and had also invested in other companies.

Colin Archer; naval architect and yard owner

Photo approx. 1880. Archer's yard can be seen between the masts of the three masted Barkentine.

Colin took up sailing and started building small boats in his spare time. Boatbuilding interested him so much that he started to study all available literature on Naval Architecture. Being well off, he could afford expensive books like Chapman’s and Scott Russel’s books.

Colin Archer and his wife's house built in 1869. They called it «Lilleodden» and address is Kirkestedet 11.

After meeting a woman that interested him, he decided to stay and build boats. They married and in 1869 and had a new house built, just 25 meters from the parents’ house. The house also served as his office and design office.

At first, the larger boats were built outdoor, but in 1872 he had a shed set up at the town side of Tollerodden. After he had built his first small boats, he employed boatbuilders work and became a professional naval architect. He titled himself as yard owner. Some years later he had another shed set up.

Colin's house «Lilleodden» seen from street.

Having the good income from abroad, this allowed him to build boats without a customer and he introduced the latest international knowledge to his designs.

The Norwegian pilot boats at the time, was of the old type «cods head-mackerel» type, lightly ballasted and not very seaworthy; hardly any pilot was buried ashore. Colin might have thought it would be an easy match to get into the pilot boat marked, but conservatism in the workboats industry was hard to persuade. So, already in 1873, he decided to go for larger ships and bought a part in a yard further out in the Larvik fjord at Rekkevik, called «Rekkevig Strandværft».

However, he kept getting orders on pilot boats, so the boatbuilding at Tollerodden was continued as well.

In 1877 he published his «Wave-form Theory» for boat and ship design in The Field and had it read for the English Institution of Naval Architects. His theory was a variation of John Scott Russell’s world famous «Wave-line Theory». By questioning this with what many regarded more logic and adopted, Colin Archer became world famous long before he had taken the most important steps in improving the Norwegian pilot boats.

He gradually became famous for his fast and seaworthy pilot boats with ballast keels and especially for his rescue boats, a larger and heavy weather version of the pilot boats. In 1892 he built the polar ship FRAM that became world famous for its voyages close to both north and south pole.

Colin ran his business until 1909, aged 77. His young foreman would have continued the business in another location if he had not died suddenly that same year. The Tollerodden yard was thereafter used for laying up boats for winter and for boat maintenance.

Street names at Tollerodden

The street that goes in a half circle past the Customs house, was called Tolbodgaten (Customs street) but was later changed to todays’ name Kirkestredet (Church path). The street leading up to the church from the town side, was called Kirkegaten (Church street) but was renamed to Colin Archers gate, in 1917, three years before he died.

Tollerodden bought by Larvik town.

Tollerodden top right. The remainder of Archer's yard can be seen to the right with smaller boats being laid up outside the shed. Photo 1940-1960.

In 1939, the Archer family sold to Larvik municipality. The yard was still used for laying up boats, but the boatsheds and sailmaker’s house were pulled down on after one, the latest in 1970’s and the area made into a park area. However, the yards launching slopes were kept and is still there.

Tollerodden became a popular public area, especially the pond on the south side suited for kids to learn to swim. The building was used for many different purposes, kindergarten, schools, etc. It ended up as social lodgings with poor maintenance and vandalism and in the early 1990s the municipality wanted to demolish the house.

Tollerodden today

The Archer house where the summer cafe is located today.

Enthusiast argued against the demolition and in 1992 a foundation was formed and was given the building. The building is now immaculately restored, and this work revealed hidden building details from 1790s, totally unknown at the time.

The nice and wooded Tollerodden as it still is today.

Tollerodden has not changed much since the Archer time. The Archer property also have a large garden and park still with the pond, all restored to the Archer time, and popular area for the Larvik citizens all year.

Further reading

• Colin Archer
• Larvik
• Serle, Percival (1949). "Archer, Thomas". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.

Sources

• Johnsen, Oscar Albert (1923). Larviks historie 1 - 1814. Grøndahl & Søn, Kristiania, Norway. Web link
• Langeland, A. St. (1953). Larviks historie, 2 - 1814-1885. Larvik kommune, Norway. Web link.
• Langeland, A. St. (1963). Larviks historie, 3 - 1885-1940. Larvik kommune, Norway. Web link.
• McDonald, Lorna (1997) Magic ships: life story of Colin Archer, 1832–1921, and Sailing for pleasure (Central Queensland University Press) ISBN 1-875998-26-8
• McDonald, Lorna (1991) Over Earth and Ocean. The Archers of Tolderodden and Gracemere. (Central Queensland University Press. ISBN 0-7022-3145-2
• McDonald, Lorna (1981) Sketches of Old Rockhampton. Sketches by Edith Neish. (University og Queensland Press, St Lucia, Queensland) ISBN 0-7022-1631-3
• Svendsen, Terje. Tollerodden - fra privat prakt til folkets oase. Own publication of the Tollerodden Foundation November 2020. Spiral booklet 113 pages.
• Jeppe Jul Nielsen & James Ronald Archer. Colin Archer. Den verdenskjente båtkonstruktøren på Tollerodden. Own publication of the Tollerodden Foundation November 2019. Spiral booklet 75 pages.
• Leather, John (1979) Colin Archer and the Seaworthy Double-Ender (International Marine Publishing Company) ISBN 0-87742-086-6
• Sannes, Tor Borch (1984) (Reprint 1978+1979). Batbyggeren Colin Archer. (Norsk Maritimt Forlag: Oslo, Norway). pp. 304–417. ISBN 82-90319-05-3

External links

• Friends of Tollerodden - Tollerodden.no (in English)
• Colin Archer History (by Jeppe Jul Nielsen)
• RS 1 COLIN ARCHER - website in English (by owners)
• The Fram Museum - in Oslo