Fosse Arenberg

The Arenberg Pit (also known as the Auguste d’Arenberg Pit) of the Compagnie des mines d’Anzin is a former coal mine located in Wallers, in the Nord–Pas-de-Calais mining basin. Shafts Arenberg Nos. 1 and 2 were started in 1900 in the northeastern part of the commune, within an unexploited area of the Anzin concession. Shaft No. 1 served for extraction and Shaft No. 2 for ventilation. Coal extraction began in June 1903, and the site was named after Auguste Louis Albéric d’Arenberg, an administrator of the Compagnie des mines d’Anzin. The mine soon became one of the company’s major production sites. Residential areas with schools, a domestic science school, a church, and a community hall were built nearby. In 1936, Shaft No. 1 received a new headframe, replacing the older structure, and the conical spoil tip No. 160, known as Arenberg, increased in size. The Compagnie des mines d’Anzin was nationalized in 1946 and incorporated into the Valenciennes Group. The Arenberg Pit was designated as one of the principal concentration sites in the mining basin. To support this development, the double-compartment Shaft No. 3–4 was started in 1954 and equipped with modern facilities, including a washing plant built to the west of the site. The new shaft entered service on August 28, 1961, and waste materials were deposited on the flat spoil tip No. 171, Mare à Goriaux. The oil crisis extended the pit’s operation for several years. In 1980, exploitation of the conical spoil tip No. 160 began, and on January 9, 1984, a tunneling machine was commissioned to drive galleries and conduct tests in preparation for the Channel Tunnel project. Coal extraction ended in March 1989. The site’s installations were subsequently preserved, notably due to the filming of Germinal in 1992, which contributed to its protection and heritage recognition. In the early 21st century, Charbonnages de France identified the locations of Shafts Nos. 1, 2, and 3–4 and installed firedamp outlets on the site. The community hall and the domestic science school were listed as historical monuments in December 2009, and the Arenberg Pit itself was classified on February 22, 2010, following its complete renovation. On June 30, 2012, the Arenberg Pit, along with several associated sites—including the Bellaing pavilion housing estate, the Arenberg miners’ housing estate, the community hall, the domestic science school, Sainte-Barbe Church, the school, the mining relief society dispensary, the Nouveau Monde pavilion estate and its school, the modern housing estates of La Drève and Le Bosquet, the Bosquet estate school, the Mare à Goriaux and its flat spoil tip No. 171, as well as the pit’s railway branch—was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Nord–Pas-de-Calais mining basin. In September 2015, the “Arenberg Creative Mine,” a film and audiovisual production center, was inaugurated on the site.

After the commissioning of the Audiffret-Pasquier, La Grange, Blignières, and Cuvinot pits beginning in the 1880s, the Compagnie des mines d’Anzin decided to establish a new mining site in the northern, still unexploited part of its concession. The Arenberg Pit was subsequently opened in the commune of Wallers, on the opposite side of the territory from the Lambrecht Pit.

Mine data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).