The oldest parts of the buildings at Hvidsten Kro come from the original inn building located in Hald and dating from 1634. The existing buildings are mainly extensions as a result of the enthusiasm and energy of Marius Fiils.

 

The Garden Room for example, with its beautiful depictive friezes, was built in 1938 as the result of an overbooking. Hvidsten Kro and its surrounding buildings were totally restored in 2001 through voluntary contributions and grants.

 

The barn and stable buildings were restored and refurbished in 2017 after a donation from the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation for General Purposes.

 

A small farm belongs to the inn of 24 'barrels' of land. The farm used to supply food to the inn and helped provide an income for the innkeeper. Gudrun Fiil employed a manager to deal with the inn's farming activities, but continued to run the inn herself.

 

A worker was also employed to take care of the garden and to prune the fruit trees. In many ways, the inn was self-sufficient with regard to fruit and vegetables, whilst leeks, white and red cabbage and carrots were grown on the farm. The garden contributed all kinds of berries from its many bushes and trees.

 

When the butcher in Spentrup built a cold store, the inn bought its meat from there. Gudrun also rented a shelf in the cold store, where much of the inn's vegetables from its own fields could be stored.

 

 

When Gudrun and Carl Paetch took over the inn on 1 July 1972, the livestock consisted of seven cows, three sows, approximately 50 hens and two Oldenborg horses. The latter had previously been used for the heavy farm work, but by this time a small tractor had been acquired, which meant the horses were largely kept for decorative purposes throughout the 1970s. There were also ducks and geese that were slaughtered every autumn. There were four heifers and their annual calves, all of which were sold.

 

Gudrun and Carl sold all their livestock around 1980 as they needed capital to restore the buildings. Small farms were also no longer viable. It made more economic sense to amalgamate farms to gain benefits of scale. The inn's farm was therefore let – and remains so to this day.

 

Gudrun and Carl only kept three sheep on the farm. The current flock are descendants of those three, bought in 1980.

 

Cows being milked in the byer. Cows, pigs, hens, horses and a range of poultry were kept at Hvidsten Kro.
Photo: Randers Stadsarkiv

The fields and other areas that belonged to the inn meant that it was more or less self-sufficient for its basic foods. The girls are seen here making sausages using an old-fashioned mincer.
Photo: Purhus Lokalarkiv