History of Kinderdijk

The history of Kinderdijk is a long one. The Holland-Utrecht region was settled by farmers around the 11th century where they established farms along the rivers, embankments and much of the high ground. The reclamation of the Alberlasserwaard polders began on the northern, western and southern sides in the 11th century. A dyke was built in the 12th century enclosing all but the western side until 1320 when it too was included. The Alberlasserwaard included two streams, the Alblas and the Giessen. This is where it gets a bit complicated so bare with me. The basins of the Alblas and the Griessen were then developed into the Nederwaard and the De Overwaard. In 1264 the Alblas was extended by a man made channel, the Graafstroom.
In 1277 a central body was established to maintain the dykes under the watchful eye of Count Floris V of Holland. The central body became known as the District Water Board for the Alblasserwaard (Hoogheemsraadschap van den Alblasserwaard). The board consisted of a dyke chief officer and 13 board members. In 1365 a canal was dug for draining De Overwaard from the Giessen to the Lek River at Elshout. This became known as the Grote or Achter Waterschap (Rear Internal Drainage District) great name! In 1369 another canal (Nieuw Waterschap) was dug from the Alblas to the Lek. Nearly 640 years later the systems are still in use.The continual fear of raising water levels led to a new elevated reservoir being built near Nieuw Waterschap in 1612. In 1726 the area experienced a devastating flood, forcing a re-think on how to combat the water issues. The result was both the Nederwaard and the Overwaard boards decided to build a series of drainage mills. The role of the mills were to transfer the water from the lower to the elevated reservoirs. A second sluice was installed at the elevated reservoir to manage the water flow. In 1766 the elevated reservoir had to be extended.
By 1860 the 25 drainage mills which were operating in De Nederwaard were simply not coping. In 1868 a steam driven pumping station was constructed to replace the role of the windmills. During War World II, when diesel fuel was virtually impossible to purchase, the mills were brought out of retirement. They operated until 1945 but were quickly closed down again when fuel became available. There are eight surviving polder mills of the De Overwaard and De Nederwaard regions. The 19 Kinderdijk mills , which are located on the north- western corner of the Alblasserwaard, were used to drain both De Overwaard and De Nederwaard until 1950. Today the windmills are open to the public but are still able to operate in a case of an emergency. In 1997 the windmills of the Kinderdijk were listed on UNESCO's World Hertitage Sites the same year the oldest windmill caught fire and was nearly burnt to the ground.