Every design for Grindsted

Grindsted is known for Grindsted Kirke, the church locals call the Cathedral of the Heath, and for the chemical works that made it an industrial town. It is the largest town in Billund Municipality and the seat of its council, set among sandy soils and wide heathland where Grindsted Å runs past the lake of Grindsted Engsø.

What makes it unusual is how fast it grew. Until the middle of the nineteenth century this was a remote village on the heath. A main road between Vejle and Varde brought some trade, but it was the railways that changed everything: within a few years Grindsted Station had lines in six directions and was one of the biggest railway junctions in Denmark. The station building survives as the bus station. Grindstedværket followed, the works that still lives on today as a DuPont factory, and with it came cement and textile works too.

Today the town has a speedway club, a handball side that has reached the top division, and Abildhøj and the Genforeningssten on its map. If you grew up here, you know the heath never quite leaves you. This one is for you.