According to Bertil Ejder, author of Skånes Ortnamn, the name Illstorp finds its origin in the fact that Viking chief Ighul already lived at this location around a millennium ago. The name Illstorp (or Yelstorp, as it was called in a document dated 1483) literally means "Ighul's house". It is quite likely that Östergård was built on the foundations of his Viking stronghold since it has always been referred to in documents and on maps as the Nr.1 farm in the village, while it is strategically very well situated on a hilltop from which potential enemies could easily be spotted from far away.

Possibly even before 1500 Östergård was built as a traditional four-winged Skåne farm with a fully enclosed courtyard that was only accessible through the main gate shown in this recent photograph.  The Decimantboken, the Danish overview of tax payers in Skåne, Blekinge and Bornholm dated 1651, shows Illstorp with eight tax paying farms. Five of these belonged to the Danish king, two were owned by Jochum Beck (he bought them from Falk Lycke, Gärsnäs in 1640), while the owner of the last farm was Tage Thott.

The earliest entry in the archives in the nearby church of Andrarum of anyone living on this farm was Per Olsson in 1659, the year after Swedish king Karl X Gustav wrested control of Skåne, Halland and Blekinge from the Danish king Frederik III.

Under Swedish rule, the Jordaboken of 1671 was published and Illstorp is listed with nine farms, five of which belonged to the Swedish king and were managed by a certain Ebba Brahe. Of the remaining four, two were associated with and two independent from the farms owned by the king. On the map below, dated 1728, the farm appears as Nr.1 of Illstorp's nine farms with its original name of Hultavången, just south of the Hulta Wång fields that belonged to the farm.

Documents in archives in Andarums churchbooks and Folkliv in Lund mention that a certain Mårten Jeppsson acquired Hultavången and moved there from the nearby village of Långaröd in 1742 with Maria Pettersdotter who grew up in Sillaröd east of Illstorp. When they finally completed major renovations to the house in 1765 they proudly carved the date and their initials into the lintel which is now displayed over the main door:

The couple had five children: Truls (1747), Simon (1750), Nils (1754), Hanna (1756) and Bengta (1761), the second of which, Simon Mårtensson and his wife Kierstina Hendricsdotter took over the farm in 1783.

Some time between 1728 and 1784, a new farm was built immediately west of the old farm by Ola Månsson and his son Måns Olsson. Måns took over control of that farm from his father in 1783, the year before the old man died at the age of 54. The two families divided up the fields north of the farms but, as these things go between close neighbours,  Simon and Måns did not see eye to eye and Simon publicly complained about such important matters as the height of the compost heap Måns erected and the fact that the new farm extended "en aln" (a yard, 91 cm) onto his property. They quarreled continuously but fortunately in 1821 the big "enskifte" (agricultural reform) took place and Måns, who was 62 by then, and his son Bengt moved their farm about a kilometer south, and it is said that peace returned to the village, especially after Måns died the year after. It gave Simon so much peace of mind that he continued to live happily until he died in 1835 at the age of 85.

Illstorp with eleven farms just before enskifte. Simon's farm can be seen on the far right and Måns' farm just left of it.

Illstorp with six farms immediately after enskifte. Simon's farm is still there but Måns has disappeared from this map.

Mårten Simonsson, son of Simon and Kierstina, was born in 1802 and in 1833 he married 22 year old Karna Andersdotter. Their initials MSS and KAD can still be seen over the main gate with the date 15 May 1847, which is when they finished improvements to the east and west wings of the farm. By 1855, Karna completed another major feat, the birth of their eleventh and last child Ola. Sadly, Ola lost his mother in 1862 and his father in 1865.

Two years after his wife died, when he was 62, Mårten decided that it was time to pass the property on to the next generation. There were three contenders, his two eldest surviving sons Simon and Nils as well as his son-in-law Mårten Nilsson, who had married his eldest daughter Elsa. That year, 1864, as part of the agreement to divide up the property among the three of them a monumental event took place: the east wing of the farm was removed!

Simon kept what remained of the farm plus the fields north of the road but his brother Nils was allowed to used the stones and beams of the east wing to build his own farm a few hundred meters to the south and was given the fields south west of the road.

Mårten, on the other hand, was told that he had to build his own farm from scratch somewhere on the fields south east of the road which he inherited. As consolation for not getting any stones or beams he was allowed to use the name of the original farm and today this house is still known as Hultavången.

The map that was drawn up as part of this agreement is shown below. Aa is Simon's share with the existing farm and a "skvaltkvarn" (water mill) by the side of the Verkeån, Ab is Nils' land and Ac is what Mårten managed to get. This map is also very interesting because it still shows, vaguely outlined, where Måns Olsson's farm once stood.

Map dated 1864 accompanying agreement dividing up 1:2 into 1:4, 1:5 and 1:6

This agreement turned the original Hultavången into a three-winged farm as can be seen below in a floor plan and photograph, both dated 1928 and stored in the Folklivsarkivet in Lund. The man who took the photograph, Gotthard Gustafsson, first documented the name Östergård. Nobody knows for sure where that name came from but it now seems very appropriate since the proud new owner's name is Lene Østergaard.

In a nutshell, Illstorp ("Ighuls house") grew from being a Viking stronghold around a thousand years ago to a village including nine farms in 1728. After the agricultural reform of 1821 only six of those farms remained, nrs. 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9. Other farms were built in other places during the 19th century but today only three of the farms that were there in 1728 still exist in various states of renovation and/or modification. Nr.1 is today known as Östergård, nr.7 as Lustgård and nr.9 as Norregård.

This history of Illstorp and Östergård is far from complete but represents what we know at present. It will be modified as more data becomes available. Last but not least we would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to Gert Lagerstedt of Björnastad, archivist of Kristinehof, who has kindly provided most of the information quoted above, as well as Karin Lagerås Olsson of Landmäteriet in Kristianstad who traced all the maps reproduced above as well as other historical documents in their archives.