Forte Taille colliery, Charleroi, Belgium, November 2019

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HughieD

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1. The History
"Forte Taille", located in Montigny-le-Tilleul, Charleroi is a former coal-mining colliery. Coal was first extracted in this area in 1755, initially via open-cast mining. Underground mining commenced at the site the next century, around 1865, when the first mines were sunk. The SA Franco-Belge coal mine was created in October that year and was a modest colliery, which adopted the production of "balls" of coal (agglomerates).

Company share certificate:

49072978903_8ef9816016_z.jpgCompany Share by HughieDW, on Flickr

As the years went by, the mine built up a reputation for accidents. Tragically, in 1920, 12 miners were killed by a gas blast. Then, ten years’ later, the mine was again the victim of a fire on 30th October,1930, which caused the death of 5 miners, including two Polish and two Italian workers.

Archive picture of the mine:

49073505786_42ced4f31a_n.jpgcarbonft by HughieDW, on Flickr

Aerial plan of the site:

49072978873_a6b86f7716_c.jpgPlan of site by HughieDW, on Flickr

1. The offices
2. Workshops and Shops
3. Boiler room
4. Machine Room;
5. Changing rooms (the locker rooms were in the centre)
N.B. blue circles indicate probable location of the wells

The mine was one of the deepest of its kind in Europe, closed in 1935. The equipment and facilities were maintained for several years after closure, with the hope of resuming operation. However, operations didn’t resume and in 1950 it was used as a dumping place for waste from factories until 1980, until in 1984 when the colliery was bought by a scrap dealer. In 2002 the former headstocks were dismantled and in 2010, excavations were conducted to assess the impact of pollution on the site. The presence of heavy metals, mineral oils and hydrocarbons were found in soils. Given the site has not been cleaned up, it currently sits abandoned with no plans for its future development.

2.The Explore
Third place on the list of a very busy day’s exploring. Not one of the real tour-bus sites – think I came across it from a Dutch explorer’s web site. Looked interesting from the air and was near by at Powerplant IM so thought I’d give it a shot. Weather took a turn for the worse but there was plenty of cover here. It was a really easy in and the first bit you come to is the offices which were the most interesting bit internally. The workshops and boiler and machine rooms are pretty far gone but, externally, the buildings themselves have a bit of style. So overall, well worth an hour or so’s mooch.

3. The Pictures

First up – the offices:

49074106243_78d828a310_b.jpgTaille 01 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Some real retro decay:

49074636546_f6fe633bf4_b.jpgTaille 03 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49074104933_f585ffd1ec_b.jpgTaille 04 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Nice old piano:

49074104618_dbe8c9b71c_b.jpgTaille 05 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Loved this old wallpaper:

49074103938_c3dd093562_b.jpgTaille 07 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49074634721_392cf18347_b.jpgTaille 08 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Office counter:

49070691333_4df72640ba_b.jpgimg4062 by HughieDW, on Flickr


Inside store now outside:

49070686828_60894510e4_b.jpgimg4065 by HughieDW, on Flickr

On to the Workshops and Shops:

49070685783_ca8f2ef3bb_b.jpgimg4067 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49074841442_98775ca75b_b.jpgTaille 09 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49070684493_e79287d3a5_b.jpgimg4069 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49071195936_2ac46f40a2_b.jpgimg4081 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49071404337_85b14d3cee_b.jpgimg4080 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49071401577_47c93eb01d_b.jpgimg4083 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Round the back to the changing rooms:

49070666053_8fd0dfd4ca_b.jpgimg4089 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49071395707_dcc5577281_b.jpgimg4091 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49074101053_0d96e4893b_b.jpgTaille 15 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49074838952_7f75528500_b.jpgTaille 16 by HughieDW, on Flickr

And then the largest of the buildings – the rather dilapidated machine room:

49070677628_9ea10e7fb7_b.jpgimg4077 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49074837467_f01167d51c_b.jpgTaille 21 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Taille 13 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49074633326_d84403de40_b.jpgTaille 12 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49070662433_3e7e7be1bf_b.jpgimg4095 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49074631076_c5d0b545d1_b.jpgTaille 18 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49074632576_bcd2ed0fd2_b.jpgTaille 14 by HughieDW, on Flickr


Derp-digger:

49074838677_8f24babb72_b.jpgTaille 17 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Nice tree graff:

49074099048_22e68be917_b.jpgTaille 22 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49074099658_7e546aa8a1_b.jpgTaille 20 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Finally, the boiler room:

49074627051_f500a0fcec_b.jpgTaille 30 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49070679923_206e183bf2_b.jpgimg4072 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49074628946_e55dcc31cd_b.jpgTaille 25 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49074098653_1c05b6c84e_b.jpgTaille 23 by HughieDW, on Flickr

Up-stairs we go…

49074835717_f1881f14b1_b.jpgTaille 26 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49074627491_264157ca6f_b.jpgTaille 29 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49074097233_6436baf089_b.jpgTaille 27 by HughieDW, on Flickr

49074834827_63f2ae44fe_b.jpgTaille 28 by HughieDW, on Flickr
 
I miss the mines :(
Interesting set that. Massive buildings too and I expect they're to do with it being a deeper mine and requiring more winding capacity. The manufacture of agglomerates would require machinery space too.
I like that one.
 
I miss the mines :(
Interesting set that. Massive buildings too and I expect they're to do with it being a deeper mine and requiring more winding capacity. The manufacture of agglomerates would require machinery space too.
I like that one.

Cheers mate. I reckon you're on the money there. This place turned out to be pretty good in the end.
 
Another cracker. There seems to b excellent graff everywhere over there.
The arched window is almost identical to the ones at my old works!
 
Another cracker. There seems to b excellent graff everywhere over there.
The arched window is almost identical to the ones at my old works!

Cheers mate. Yeah...alot of good sites and great graff too. The industrial stuff in Belgium has got real style to it...
 

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