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:
Company 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:
carbonft by HughieDW, on Flickr
Aerial plan of the site:
Plan 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:
Taille 01 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Some real retro decay:
Taille 03 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Taille 04 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Nice old piano:
Taille 05 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Loved this old wallpaper:
Taille 07 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Taille 08 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Office counter:
img4062 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Inside store now outside:
img4065 by HughieDW, on Flickr
On to the Workshops and Shops:
img4067 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Taille 09 by HughieDW, on Flickr
img4069 by HughieDW, on Flickr
img4081 by HughieDW, on Flickr
img4080 by HughieDW, on Flickr
img4083 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Round the back to the changing rooms:
img4089 by HughieDW, on Flickr
img4091 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Taille 15 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Taille 16 by HughieDW, on Flickr
And then the largest of the buildings – the rather dilapidated machine room:
img4077 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Taille 21 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Taille 13 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Taille 12 by HughieDW, on Flickr
img4095 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Taille 18 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Taille 14 by HughieDW, on Flickr
"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:
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:
Aerial plan of the site:
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:
Some real retro decay:
Nice old piano:
Loved this old wallpaper:
Office counter:
Inside store now outside:
On to the Workshops and Shops:
Round the back to the changing rooms:
And then the largest of the buildings – the rather dilapidated machine room:
