Report - Houillères d'Anderlues, Belgium, November 2019

HughieD · Nov 24, 2019

1. The History
Anderlues is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. Coal extraction dates back to 1858 when the company Anderlues was created. In 1894 the Société Anonyme des Houillères d'Anderlues was formed in 1894 through the merger with some local coal mines and the first coke factory established in 1904. It had an annual capacity of 90,000 tons of “foundry coke” along with a tar recovery plant and ammonium sulphate plant. It was built near the central washhouse and a power plant was added later. In 1908 two more coke oven batteries were added, each one with 26 Coppée furnaces and able to produce 74,000 tons. Further refinements in the 1920’s included the installation of a benzene distillation plant and the complete refurbishment of the ovens in 1928.

Archive picture when the plant was still working;

Andalues old 1 by HughieDW, on Flickr

During the Second World War the company proceeded to update its coal mining and treatment facilities. As result, the plant was employing approximately 2,000 people with about a quarter of the work force at the coke plant. By 1956 there were 35 furnaces in service and renovation took place between 1956 and 1958. Both the old batteries B1 and B2 were provided with 10 Coppée/CEC furnaces and a third battery (B3) of 18 Coppée ovens was created. Despite those investments coke production remained a secondary. However, the company’s coal mines were gradually closed down (five in 1943 and three in 1952) and in 1969 coal mining was suspended and coal imported from Spain and North America.

In 1971 the company changed its name into Société Anonyme des Cokeries et Houillères d'Anderlues (shorten in Cokeries d'Anderlues). The production was extended to metallurgical coke (or “Cokan”) for blast furnaces and the bi-products such as benzene and gas were sold to other companies. In 1988 battery B3 was renovated giving it a capacity of 120,000 tonne of coke per annum (83% foundry and 17% metallurgical). With no further improvements in the 1990s the plant reached the new millennium run-down and on a heavily polluted site.

Aerial picture shortly after the pant closed:

Andalues old 3 by HughieDW, on Flickr

In 1999 the company’s regional permit to operate was denied by the Ministry of the Walloon Region. The heavy costs of putting this right plus the increasing competition from emerging countries forced the company to close down the coking plant indefinitely in November 2002 and the loss of 113 jobs. The longest running coke plant in Belgium was then sold in 2004 to a private owner who demolished a number of buildings on the site including the laundry, furnace machines, engines, metal parts of the furnaces and gas treatment tanks. Since then, the site has remained abandoned, awaiting the demolition of the remaining structures.

2. The Explore
No.4 of five sites visited on my first day in Belgium. This was by far the biggest of the places I looked around. Again, access was ridiculously easy. The site is pretty overgrown and not as easy to get around as you think. The buildings have been stripped and are pretty much shells, but the external views mean it still merits a visit. It was here that I saw the only other people all day – a couple of local explorers who were having a look round and had their own sound system!

3. The Pictures

The first thing of interest you come to is this: