A CLEAN SLATE (?) | Een Schone Leij (?)

Tilburg naturally drains into three different streams, all three belonging to the Meuse river basin, namely the Oude Leij in the west, the Nieuwe Leij in the south-east and the Zandleij in the north-east.

The toponyms “Aa” and “Leij” are “generic water names”, with “Aa” indicating a natural watercourse and “Leij” meaning that the course has been “dug” and adapted to our needs: to “lead” the watercourse.

“De Vuile Leij”
During the 19th century, Tilburg grew into an industrial city, which resulted in a sharp increase in the amount of waste water produced by residents and industry. However, the city had no connection to large bodies of water. The so-called blue ditches, which carried waste water from the textile factories, flowed untreated into the rivers.

In popular parlance, names such as “De vèùl strôom” or “Vèùl Laai” came into use; the “Vuile Leij”

“Een Schone Leij (?)”
As “Waterlandscape Pauwels”, this area is no longer the “drain” for heavily polluted water from the city; the city is now a source of clean water for the hinterland. In the centre of the Noorderbos are the remains of what was once the distribution station with settling tanks, from where the heavily polluted water was spread over the floodplains.

The reversal from polluted water to clean water calls for a new toponym, from “Vuile Leij” to “Schone Leij (?)”, but with a question mark…