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Having failed spectacularly to gain entry to our target sites not once but three times consecutively on our Belgian urb-ex road trip we were getting a tad disheartened, so we decided to have one more go before canning it and heading on to Verdun a day early. Neither TJ nor I are particularly fond of industrial sites, they just don't float our prospective boats, so when we heard about a coal mine, a dirty, black, minging coal mine, we were less than enthusiastic, but we researched the location anyway and made a note of how to find it. So, with coordinates duly programmed into the "drivers curse" (that's Tom Tom to you) we found ourselves standing on a narrow path next to a farmer's field half way up a hill, where he was merrily spraying human cr*p all over the place and creating the most appalling, bowk inducing stink!
OK...
Time to think again clearly! We eventually found that the coordinates had been entered incorrectly and with much swearing and general irritability we finally rolled into the tiny village where the mine really is! To be honest it's hard to miss it because most of the main street is taken up by a long building which runs the entire length of the mine complex. There is little else on the main street apart from a small cafe, also apparently part of the same building! We wandered aimlessly looking for a way in, getting more and more depressed by the minute because the only obvious route appeared to be down a near vertical cliff directly behind the workings, not altogether suitable, especially as our ropes and descenders would definitely be needed - it wasn't "in" that would be difficult, gravity would help with that, "out" though would be an entirely different matter! On the point of canning this one too we wandered along a tiny back street eyeing up the building until a guy appeared out of a house behind us, asked us what we were doing, and then as if by magic produced a key to a side door of the complex! Of course money had to change hands but at least it meant we enjoyed an undisturbed explore and all the time we wanted!
A result at last!
The Hasard Cherratte colliery was opened in 1860 by "Les Charbonnages du Hasard", a local coal mining company. The Liege area is dotted with pits and their associated slag heaps and coal was for many years the principal fuel feeding Belgium's electricity production. This colliery complex defies the norm by being aesthetically pleasing; indeed the mine buildings actually compliment what would otherwise be a rather grey and uninviting village. The price of coal extraction increases as soon as the richer seams are depleted and eventually every colliery reaches a point where it is no longer economically viable to continue extraction operations. Hasard Cherrate reached that point in 1977 and having already reduced their work force from in excess of 1500 miners to just 600, it was time to shut down the mine leaving the village to slowly degenerate into a rather grim looking commuter suburb of Liege itself.
And from the urb-exer's point of view that was when life began to get interesting, for the entire site was left pretty much alone even after it was sold off to a private owner who has done nothing at all with it subsequently apart from securing the various entrance doors. The colliery buildings are not what you might expect to find being really rather ornate rather than functional, especially the brick built "Malakow Tower" block which sits over the top of the 170 meter deep shaft number 1. Constructed in 1907, it dominates the colliery and the village. The tower itself looks for all the world like an 18th. century castle despite it's functionality, the miner's showers and locker rooms are located here together with numerous offices. Another shaft dug into the hillside behind the mine buildings was named "Puits Hognée", and the entrance it is still visible inside the tower. It is not possible to go into the shaft now as it has been comprehensively barred for safety reasons. Interestingly you find this shaft entrance by nose rather than with your eyes because the pungent and rather rancid smell of methane rich coal gas assails your senses long before you come to the entrance! Shaft number 2 has a not inconsiderable depth of 313 meters with a cage lift down to the coal face located inside one of the numerous buildings on site. But the last shaft is the deepest at 480 meters. The associated diagonally braced winding tower is standard colliery fare and this steel and concrete construction dating back to 1923 is well worth the effort of climbing to the top for the variety of expansive views it affords both over the colliery itself and the surrounding countryside.
The unusual architecture of the site meant that it was afforded historical monument status in 1982 so for at least the foreseeable future the Malakow Tower is NOT coming down, but nothing else appears to be happening with the site other than it's occasional use as a paint ball venue. The buildings are littered with innumerable artefacts including component parts of respirators, miner's protective clothing and boots, and masses of ledgers and assorted paperwork, the reading of which would take days!
OK...
Time to think again clearly! We eventually found that the coordinates had been entered incorrectly and with much swearing and general irritability we finally rolled into the tiny village where the mine really is! To be honest it's hard to miss it because most of the main street is taken up by a long building which runs the entire length of the mine complex. There is little else on the main street apart from a small cafe, also apparently part of the same building! We wandered aimlessly looking for a way in, getting more and more depressed by the minute because the only obvious route appeared to be down a near vertical cliff directly behind the workings, not altogether suitable, especially as our ropes and descenders would definitely be needed - it wasn't "in" that would be difficult, gravity would help with that, "out" though would be an entirely different matter! On the point of canning this one too we wandered along a tiny back street eyeing up the building until a guy appeared out of a house behind us, asked us what we were doing, and then as if by magic produced a key to a side door of the complex! Of course money had to change hands but at least it meant we enjoyed an undisturbed explore and all the time we wanted!
A result at last!
L'histoire d'Hasard Cherrate mine de charbon...
The Hasard Cherratte colliery was opened in 1860 by "Les Charbonnages du Hasard", a local coal mining company. The Liege area is dotted with pits and their associated slag heaps and coal was for many years the principal fuel feeding Belgium's electricity production. This colliery complex defies the norm by being aesthetically pleasing; indeed the mine buildings actually compliment what would otherwise be a rather grey and uninviting village. The price of coal extraction increases as soon as the richer seams are depleted and eventually every colliery reaches a point where it is no longer economically viable to continue extraction operations. Hasard Cherrate reached that point in 1977 and having already reduced their work force from in excess of 1500 miners to just 600, it was time to shut down the mine leaving the village to slowly degenerate into a rather grim looking commuter suburb of Liege itself.
And from the urb-exer's point of view that was when life began to get interesting, for the entire site was left pretty much alone even after it was sold off to a private owner who has done nothing at all with it subsequently apart from securing the various entrance doors. The colliery buildings are not what you might expect to find being really rather ornate rather than functional, especially the brick built "Malakow Tower" block which sits over the top of the 170 meter deep shaft number 1. Constructed in 1907, it dominates the colliery and the village. The tower itself looks for all the world like an 18th. century castle despite it's functionality, the miner's showers and locker rooms are located here together with numerous offices. Another shaft dug into the hillside behind the mine buildings was named "Puits Hognée", and the entrance it is still visible inside the tower. It is not possible to go into the shaft now as it has been comprehensively barred for safety reasons. Interestingly you find this shaft entrance by nose rather than with your eyes because the pungent and rather rancid smell of methane rich coal gas assails your senses long before you come to the entrance! Shaft number 2 has a not inconsiderable depth of 313 meters with a cage lift down to the coal face located inside one of the numerous buildings on site. But the last shaft is the deepest at 480 meters. The associated diagonally braced winding tower is standard colliery fare and this steel and concrete construction dating back to 1923 is well worth the effort of climbing to the top for the variety of expansive views it affords both over the colliery itself and the surrounding countryside.
The unusual architecture of the site meant that it was afforded historical monument status in 1982 so for at least the foreseeable future the Malakow Tower is NOT coming down, but nothing else appears to be happening with the site other than it's occasional use as a paint ball venue. The buildings are littered with innumerable artefacts including component parts of respirators, miner's protective clothing and boots, and masses of ledgers and assorted paperwork, the reading of which would take days!
Les Photographies...
The colliery buildings take up most of the street in the village.
The winding tower for one of the pits.
Inside at street level there is a cage lift which we assume goes down one of the pits.
Lift gubbins!
I couldn't have put it more succinctly myself!
Concrete stair porn in the admin block.
The upper level office gives a great view of the colliery bridge and the street below.
Artifacts abound - these are box respirator cartridges.
Outside on the upper level is the access to the Malakov Tower and the deep pit winch tower.
The winding tower for the deepest pit.
Inside the winch motor room.
The winch motor control room.
On the way up!
The bridge says it all!
It's a lonnnnnnnng way down!
So photogenic!
Composing a shot of....
The winch wheel!
TJ and the wheel!
an' 'ook!
See that car with a top box on the roof? That's ours that is!
A nob up a tower!
Miner's leather aprons in the shower blocks in the Malakov Tower.
In the tower offices we found loads of old ledgers and correspondence.
The date on this ledger is 1927.
We smelt this pit shaft entrance long before we found it. It is inside the tower at ground level and it stunk of methane.
Clocking in and out!
Do you think someone should tell him his shift finished in 1973?
Here's his jacket!
safety boots hung back up after the last shift.
Time to go. This is the miner's entrance at street level.
...and that's yer lot for now!
Hope you enjoyed the pix, thanks for looking!
The colliery buildings take up most of the street in the village.
The winding tower for one of the pits.
Inside at street level there is a cage lift which we assume goes down one of the pits.
Lift gubbins!
I couldn't have put it more succinctly myself!
Concrete stair porn in the admin block.
The upper level office gives a great view of the colliery bridge and the street below.
Artifacts abound - these are box respirator cartridges.
Outside on the upper level is the access to the Malakov Tower and the deep pit winch tower.
The winding tower for the deepest pit.
Inside the winch motor room.
The winch motor control room.
On the way up!
The bridge says it all!
It's a lonnnnnnnng way down!
So photogenic!
Composing a shot of....
The winch wheel!
TJ and the wheel!
an' 'ook!
See that car with a top box on the roof? That's ours that is!
A nob up a tower!
Miner's leather aprons in the shower blocks in the Malakov Tower.
In the tower offices we found loads of old ledgers and correspondence.
The date on this ledger is 1927.
We smelt this pit shaft entrance long before we found it. It is inside the tower at ground level and it stunk of methane.
Clocking in and out!
Do you think someone should tell him his shift finished in 1973?
Here's his jacket!
safety boots hung back up after the last shift.
Time to go. This is the miner's entrance at street level.
...and that's yer lot for now!
Hope you enjoyed the pix, thanks for looking!
