Our pretty farming village of Benken with many timber-framed houses lies in the northern part of the "Zürcher Weinland", approx. 9 km from Schaffhausen and approx. 20 km from Winterthur.
The area around Benken was already inhabited by the Alemanni, as finds have shown. The first written mention of Benken can be found in a document from King Ludwig the German, issued on the 12th of April 858. Later it definitely belonged to the property of the Rheinau monastery.
To go into the varied history of the area in the Middle Ages would go too far here. It is certain that viticulture has long played an important economic role.
The quartz sand works northeast of the village also contributed to a certain wealth. Between 1836 and 1983, high-quality quartz sand was mined there, which was used for glass production, but also for the foundry industry, for grinding, blowing and filter sand. Because the mining site was surrounded by forest and no clearing permit was available, quartz sand exploitation was discontinued in autumn 1983. The plant facilities were disassembled and demolished.
Today there is a small nature reserve, dominated by the 40-metre-high mining wall, which has gained national importance as a geological exposure. The area is about 1.5 km away from the Chellhof and can easily be reached on foot.
