How Kinderdijk Got Its Name
On 19 November 1421, one day after the St Elisabeth Flood, a wooden cradle floated by the Lek dyke on the high water. In the cradle a baby; on the rim a striped cat jumped back and forth. The cradle ran aground; the baby lived. Since 1422 the place has been called Kinderdijk (Children’s Dyke).
1 The flood and the cradle
18 November 1421: the St Elisabeth Flood broke the Wieldrecht sea-dyke. 65 villages drowned, about 10,000 people. In the village of Erpel (now under water) lived the young mother Cornelia van Nispen with her three-month-old son Jan and a striped cat Bombazijn. On the night of 17-18 November Cornelia had gone to her sick mother; Jan lay in the cradle, Bombazijn on the bed. When the water flooded Erpel, the cradle floated with Jan through the open door. Bombazijn jumped on. Cornelia was washed away, never found.
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