Hamlet of La Houillère

The hamlet is located in a small valley in the Chevanel woods,[p 1] between the communes of Ronchamp and Champagney, in Haute-Saône, eastern France,[a 1] 1.5 kilometers from the center of Ronchamp and 2.5 kilometers from the center of Champagney.[1]

The town is part of the Champagney canton and belongs to the Rahin et Chérimont community of communes.

The hamlet of La Houillère nestles in a small valley running northeast-southwest, bordered by small wooded hills belonging to the same mountain range as the hill of Bourlémont, and is part of the Ballons des Vosges Nature Park. The altitude at the center of the hamlet is 381 meters.[2]

Topography of the hamlet of La Houillière.

The hamlet was built on the Haute-Saône plateau in the sub-Vosgian depression,[3] on the southern slopes of the Vosges mountains.[4]

It is part of the sub-Vosgian coalfield, which consists of two layers of coal (varying in thickness from a few centimeters to three meters) in a quadrilateral five kilometers long and two kilometers wide.[p 2] The coal deposit is overlain by red sandstone and various types of clay.[a 2]

Coal began to form 300 million years ago, during the Carboniferous period. The transformation of plant litter took place over a period of 20 million years to form coal. During this phase, organic sediments collected in a basin and were covered by alluvial deposits.[5]

Several mountain streams irrigate the surrounding area and flow into the Rahin to the south. Two ponds are located nearby: Fourchie pond, fed by mine water drained by the large drainage channel, and a small artificial pond created as a reservoir in case of fire. They can be seen along the historic outcrop circuit.[a 3][a 4]

The large drainage channel, which evacuates the mine water from the drainage, passes under the hamlet and feeds the Fourchie pond.[a 5]

The Paris-Mulhouse railway line passes south of the hamlet. The Ronchamp colliery station was built during the mining era. It was used to transport coal. Three roads cross the hamlet, two of them leading to Ronchamp from the west and south, the third to Champagney to the east.[6]

The Saint-Louis mine, located south of the hamlet.

The hamlet of La Houillère was highly industrialized between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries, having been created from scratch in the middle of a forest to facilitate coal mining. Each hillside is pierced by several tunnels and small adits (most of which do not lead to the surface).[p 9] Alongside the roads, coal yards were built, along with warehouses and sorting buildings. Small factories were also set up in the hamlet, including an alum factory, a glassworks and a factory producing lampblack and bitumen.[p 10]

In the 1810s, the company's first two shafts were dug in the hamlet: the Saint-Louis coal mine and the Henri IV coal mine.[p 6] The Saint-Louis mine had several buildings to sort the coal and house the various machinery (winding engine and pumps powered by a steam engine, and the horse-drawn engine still in place), and was recognizable by its large flue-gas stack overlooking the hamlet. The Henri IV well, with its less imposing infrastructure, was mainly used for dewatering and aerating the Saint-Louis works, using pumps driven by oxen. The water was released into the large drainage channel that crossed the hamlet from east to west.[a 6]

To the south of the hamlet, the company-owned railway station was used to switch coal trains between the various shafts and the line from Paris-Est to Mulhouse-Ville.[a 9] Nearby were also the offices and workshops of the collieries, now the premises of MagLum, as well as the Saint-Charles shaft and its slag heaps.

The hamlet of La Houillère comprises dozens of different types of housing, built between 1760 and 1850 by the Ronchamp coal-mining company in a haphazard fashion to meet labor needs, with no urban planning.

There were dormitories for single miners or those working weekdays (at first, they slept on straw mats on the floor, with only one stove per floor), which were later converted into apartments for miners' families. There are also phalanstères with wooden staircases and walkways. The Plateforme mining estate, comprising eight houses, was built in 1854 opposite the Saint-Louis shaft, then converted into a casino.[p 11] It is listed in the general inventory of cultural heritage as the "cité ouvrière de la Houillère".[9]

There are also individual houses reserved for master miners and engineers, as well as a manor house known as the Château de la Houillère. Since the 1850s, the latter has been the managers' official residence; prior to this date, they lived in a more modest dwelling topped by a bell tower, where a small bell rang when work began and ended.[a 1][p 12][10]

Despite deindustrialization, new pavilions were built long after the mines closed in the 20th and 21st centuries.[a 1]

In addition to housing and industrial facilities, the hamlet included a number of outbuildings to serve the residents. For catering purposes, a cantina and inn were built in 1825.[p 6] Around 1850, a school was built.[p 7] The company also built warehouses and an infirmary-hospital reserved for employees,[p 6] housed in a tall building with care and rest rooms, as well as accommodation for the nurse who had to provide food and guard duty. By 1919, a doctor, a nurse and midwives were serving the population of the coalfield.[11] To meet hygiene needs, clean water was pumped from a stream to a hilltop reservoir, which in turn supplied the hamlet's fire hydrants.[a 10] Some disused industrial buildings were converted into assembly halls, a bar-tabac, a theater and a casino.[a 1] At the beginning of the 21st century, the only existing service in the hamlet was a public nursery school.[12]