Singlis
The formerly independent community of Singlis has been since its amalgamation with Borken in 1974 with its population then of 880.
The following constituent communities are in direct neighbourhood. In the southeast is Lembach (among to the municipal of Homberg), in southwest Borken, in the northwest Gombeth and in the east Lendorf.
History
Where the river Gilsbach, coming from Pfaffenhausen, empties into the Schwalm lies Singlis, an ancient settlement whose roots reach back to the early Stone Age. Singlis's first documentary mention came, as did Großenenglis's, in 775 in the Breviarium sancti Lulli. In the centuries that followed, the noble family of von Züschen did especially well, amassing quite a bit of wealth. In 1265, the family sold their holdings in Singlis together with everything on the lands, including the mill and the court in Singlis and Nordwig to the monastery at Haina. The monastery built their new domain with about 55 morgen of land into one of its most important farms. As a result of the Reformation and the monastery's consequent dissolution, its farm in Singlis, along with its income, was assigned to the University of Marburg. The farm was put in a landgravial reeve's care and was called the Universitäts-Vogtei Singlis ("Singlis University Reeveship"). In the middle of the 19th century, the farm was sold and later, the parts were sold off to various farmers in Singlis. The village belonged in 1578 to the Amt of Borken and at the time had about 52 households. After the general drop in population in this part of the world due to the Thirty Years' War, it was not until the early 19th century that the population once again reached its former level. Today, Singlis has 909 inhabitants. The church's current location was presumably the centre of settlement in the early Middle Ages. The land there is roughly 2 m higher than that around it, keeping it well above most floodwater. A church was first mentioned in 1265 when the von Züschens sold the monastery their landholdings. The church that stands today was built between 1700 and 1710 as a simple hall and has since been thoroughly renovated several times, the latest work having been done in 1971. Since then, the bell tower has stood to the north next to the church. Singlis has been since the Reformation the seat of a parish and has an affiliated church in Lendorf.
Singlis's Schwalmmühle – Mill on the Schwalm – was first mentioned in 1266. At that time it lay right on the Schwalm, that is to say, right where the river Gilsbach joins it today. Only in 1508 was a millstream dug and the mill moved to the place where it still stands now. From that time until 1977, the mill was owned by the Wagner and Nöll families. In 1807, the writer Ernst Koch was born in Singlis. PreussenElektra, as the new owner, shut the mill down, at least as a grist mill, but to this day they still use it to generate electricity, which is fed into the grid. The 503-hectare rural area was also affected by brown coal strip mining from 1960 to 1972. The former strip mine with the name "Singlis" lay just west of the village and is nowadays a 70-hectare pond.
External links
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