In the fifteenth century, the wool and cloth industry in Herentals flourished enormously. For the production, the clothmakers from Herentals made good use of the proximity of the Kleine Nete and its side arms.
After all, water was indispensable for the manufacture of the fine cloth, but was also used to generate energy with water mills. The weir on the Kleine Nete, a few tens of meters upstream from Le Paige Castle, is not used to generate energy, but to control the decline of the river.
The weir prevents fish from swimming upstream to spawn. To eliminate this obstacle, a remarkable construction has been built: a diversion has been placed in the river at the height of the weir. The water flows down a series of wide low steps. Research has shown that more than twenty fish species use this route.
Source: Routeyou