#coilery

[urbanrelics]

WHEEL OF FORTUNE

This relatively small building is part of a coal mine that I visited twice before already. This particular building is called the 'reception building' of the coal mine and houses the machinery that was used to hoist the elevators out of the mine.

The eye-catcher in the building is the gigantic pulleys, driven by several turbines, which suggest the impressive forces generated here to lift the heavily loaded elevators from the mine shaft to the top.

[urbanrelics]

BLACK GOLD

At the beginning of the twentieth century, test drilling was carried out in various places in this area. It soon became apparent that there was a rich presence of coal in the soil. A few years later, a concession was granted for the development of an area of more than 5000 hectares. Partly because of the First World War, it took until the early 1920s before coal was actually mined. During the peak year, in the mid-1950s, 6,800 miners extracted nearly 800,000 tons of coal. In the course of its operation, a total of almost 80 million tons of coal was mined. Although only a small portion of the coal layers were mined, the mine ceased operations in the late 1980s.

The coal mill and washing plant was the main above-ground mining activity. The coal was separated from the rubble and washed to make it ready for sale. The building was erected in the early 1920s and was expanded several times until it had a daily capacity of 7,500 tons. The ten-storey, monolithic coal washing plant is one of the few surviving examples in Western Europe. For that reason it was protected as a monument. However, this is disputed by the owner, who has already made several attempts to obtain a permit to demolish the building, which fortunately he has not yet succeeded...

Due to Tumblr limitations, this is only a small selection of the full set of photos. If you would like to see the full set, go have a look on my website: https://www.urbanrelics.be/project/black-gold/

[urbanrelics]

ZECHE N1

The story of this Zeche (coal mine) starts as early as 1855, but the digging work did not start until 1912. Shortly after the start of production mining was considerably delayed by the outbreak of the First World War. It was not until 1915, fully in the war years, that coal was brought up from a depth of almost 400 meters. Shortly after the war the second shaft was put into use. Along with the other shafts of the mine, in the peak years (1980s), up to nearly 3 million tons of coal were extracted from the earth by more than 4,000 miners ... From that time on, however, the success of the mine began to decline. In the early 2000s, the day facilities of shaft 3 were completely dismantled. From 2003 to 2005, the day facilities of Zeche N1 were completely demolished, with the exception of main frames 1 and 2 as well as the machinery (power plant) and the building of the former mine weir, to which the gas extraction system is attached. These must be kept as industrial monuments. The Zeche N4 (of which I will post an album shortly) a little further is still completely preserved.

[urbanrelics]

ZECHE ADH

This abandoned coilery was opened in  1977. In both the architecture and the interior decoration of the buildings the seventies are clearly present. In its rather short history the coilery would be taken over by other companies several times before it was shut down permanently in 1999. The shaft of the mine was 20 by 20 feet and ran more than 3600 feet under the ground! At its peak (together with the nearby second shaft of the same company) over 3 million tons of coal were extracted on a yearly basis. In 2015 the shaft was sealed with 1.3 millioin cubic feet of concrete. The remaining buildings are to be removed and the area will be given back to nature.