Westerhoven is a village in the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

province of

North Brabant North Brabant ( ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, Dutch Brabant or Hollandic Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to ...

. It is located in the municipality of

Bergeijk Bergeijk ( ; ) is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and town in southern Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant. It consists of an area of and had a population of in . It is one of 21 municipalities, including Eindhoven, th ...

, about 15 km southwest of

Eindhoven Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also locat ...

History

Westerhoven lies in a valley between the rivers Keersop and Beekloop which flow just outside the centre of the village. The hill connecting the neighbor village

Riethoven Riethoven () is a village in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It is located in the municipality of Bergeijk, about southwest of Eindhoven. The adjacent township of Walik is in general considered to be a part of Riethoven. Riethoven was origin ...

dates from

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

times.

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages, a group of Low Germanic languages also commonly referred to as "Frankish" varieties * Francia, a post-Roman ...

ceramics have been found there. Westerhoven used to be part of the ‘heerlijkheid’ Bergeyk but became independent in 1810. Westerhoven was a separate municipality until 1997, when it became part of

by municipality reclassification. A Second World War cemetery, containing graves of 220 British soldiers, was created near Westerhoven in October 1944. It is now maintained by the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

. The spoken language is Kempenlands (an

East Brabantian East Brabantian ( or ) is one of the main divisions of the Brabantian dialect group recognized by the ''Woordenboek van de Brabantse dialecten''. East Brabantian dialects are mainly spoken in the eastern part of the province of North Brabant. Clas ...

dialect, which is very similar to colloquial

).Jos & Cor Swanenberg: Taal in stad en land: Oost-Brabants,

References

Municipalities of the Netherlands disestablished in 1997 Populated places in North Brabant Former municipalities of North Brabant Bergeijk {{NorthBrabant-geo-stub