Report - Zeche EH - Germany, Feb 2013

[Ric]

I didn't get many pictures of the De_Zeche's we visited on the -10 Snowderp tour from a few weeks back so i combined the massive amount of pictures i didn't take when on location in this report.

Zeche E and Zeche H otherwise known as Hugo and Ewald.

Firstly, Ewald:

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See, i even managed to include the same (almost) picture twice!

Zeche (Mine) E which stands for Ewald is an abandoned colliery in western Germany.

The preparations for the main shaft at the mine started planning in 1872, by 1876 the main shaft’s depth was 464m which at the time was one of the deepest mine shafts in Germany which was only beaten when the shaft was drilled further in 1884 to a depth of 624m.

Many more shafts were drilled at Ewald, Shaft 2 was sunk in 1892 with the 3rd and 4th in 1895 and the final 5th shaft in 1911, due to the demand of resources during WW2 more shafts were sunk upto a total of 7.

In 1969 Zeche Ewald became part of the RAG Aktiengesellschaft company and was merged with Zeche Recklinghausen and in 1989 the mine was merged yet again with the company which owned Zeche Hugo bringing the total number of shafts between the 3 mines to 21.

A decision to close Zeche Ewald was passed on March 28th 2000 with the last coal delivery bringing an end to operations at Ewald in Spring 2001.

The site remains with one headstock still in location along with the winding house (pictured) the rest of the buildings are used for a convention which is held each year in the town.

And Hugo:

History ripped from elsewhere:

Zeche Hugo is a former coal mine in western Germany Established in 1873 the mine continued to operate until 2000, at which time the coal seam had been almost fully exploited. At it's height in the 1960's it employed 5000 and excavated 3.5 millions tons a year. It operated out of 8 shafts and eventually reached a depth of 1200 metres.

Zeche Hugo is famous for its large hall of 'bird cages', officially known as 'Kaue', they were used to hold workers clothing and possessions during their shifts. As the mine worked into the latter half of the 20th century, a large proportion of the workforce consisted of immigrants, mostly of Turkish descent.

Thanks for looking.