Expedition Site 7, Expedition 9, June 14th 2009, Belgium

An old coalmine that despite being visited often, was on my to-do list...

 

In the province of Luik is a small town called Cheratte.  In that little town is an old coalmine called Charbonnages du Hasard. The tower of the airvent of Belle-Fleur de Hoignée is recognized as a monument since 1992. The building is in a typical Malakoff tower and was built in 1907. This way of building dates back from the 19th century and is named after a building in the Russian town Sebastopol. In the german Ruhr-area, one can find lots of these types of buildings. It reminds more of an old castle then a building filled with dressingrooms and showers and such for miners.The mine itself has four shafts. One in the main building and the rest in the surrounding areas. The deepest shaft is 480 meters deep.

Shortly after the industrial revolution in Belgium (1815-1830) a demand for workers grew and even up until the mid 20th century workers from even abroad were needed. First the Wallonian mine-owners recruited their employees from the direct vicinity of their company. Later on the workers came from just about anywhere. In the course of the 19th century, a lot of Dutch people emigrated to Luik because of this. Their numbers in terms of population in the province grew from not even 5000 in 1846 to over 11000 in 1900. Lot of those were Limburgers, as it was close to Limburg and in the 19th century it was about the poorest province in the Netherlands (and Belgium). Poor as they were, they saw a golden opportunity. A lot of Dutch people however were exploited and in november 1950 a formal complaint (more then one actually) came on the desks of the General Dutch Miners Union about the payments of their wages. Instead of the pormised 200 belgian franks they received not even half of that. On top of that the working conditions in the belgian mines were very poor.
There is a story about a mine worker that commuted from 1949 to 1962 between his home in Bocholtz and Cheratte. "The Luik mines were hopelessly outdated, I didn't believe what I saw when I first exited the elevatorcage. In Cheratte they still used horses underground. Stamps were non existant, only wooden supportbeams that you had to saw yourself."

At the end of September 1952, over 1400 Dutch Limburger workers were working in the Belgian Mines. Including those in the coalmines on the Wallonian side. In 1950 to 1955 about 10 to 13 percent of the underground personel in Le Hasard were Dutch commuters. These mines were 15km from the border, but the 'frontalier Hollandais' as they were called, were very active then at the mines... not only in Cheratte. French was the commonly spoken language in that part of the region, but they adapted very quickly. At one point the commute to the Belgian mines lessened. In 1961 about 1143 miners came from Limburg. The funny thing is, that as of 1960 a special permit to cross the border to work in Belgium was abolished. 

It is calculated that for at least 50 years of supply of coals is hidden in the mines, but it was never used as there were more efficient and cheaper means of producing energy. In 1977 the corporate buildings of the coalmine in Cheratte was closed. Thus came an end to "S.A. Charbonnage du Hasard Cheratte".

 

 

Again we had an early start as we arranged to meet with a group of people at 8.30 - 9.00 at the top of Cheratte where we would take the jungle tour. We knew there was a caretaker, but decided we'd try it the urbex way. Herbert and I woke up very early and went to Gent to pick someone up and from there on to Cheratte. After a long drive we got there and started entering the jungle. A bit of searching led us to the right path and to the site. Quite an adventure and I wouldn't want to do it when it was wet as it is a steep climb (or decent when you go to the site).

There is also the "guided" tour, which is that you have to give the caretaker a ring and pay him 10 euro's each to stay on site. We weren't planning on doing so, but when we got there we found a group of bb-gun players (sort of like paintball but different) and he came to check on them from time to time, so we got caught and had to pay anyways... 

Once arrived there the sheer size of the site overwhelmed me a bit and figured I wouldn't have enough time to get to look around. Less is true, as we did it in about 5 hours or so. I gotten a bit tired of the site and the person we picked up in Gent was finished so I held that into account as well and we left the site after tons of pictures taken. I don't quite know if it's worth a revisit, but never say never...