Blaye-the-mines

Blaye-the-Mines is a common French, located in the department of the Tarn and the area the Midday-Pyrenees.

Geography

History

The origin of BLAYE goes back to the foundation of a royal country house, in 1302, with an aim of revivifying the Albigensian in déshérence. For its rural population, several centuries are passed slowly at the rate/rhythm of the parochial bell-tower. With 18th and 19th centuries, BLAYE in ALBIGENSIAN makes knowledge with the Industrial revolution. The family of lords of the manor blayais, SOLAGES, particularly dynamic, creates a glassmaking in 1752, installs the first steam engine in 1811 and opens the Marie and Tronquié, mine shafts of Grillatié in 1837 in 1878 Holy in 1895. The destiny of Blaye is for a long time related to that of coal and glass. On its territory, during two centuries it quasi totality of the " will be produced; coal of Carmaux". In 1934, BLAYE in ALBIGENSIAN becomes officially BLAYE-les-MINES. The adventure knows a final point in 1987 with the closing of the last mine shaft. A last coal sudden start, of 1985 to 1997, with the digging of the mine with open sky of Blaye-the-Mines, known under the name of Great Discovery, which will not inflect the course of the history. But it is in this crater of 1 kilometer diameter and 200 meters of depth that settled in Blaye, the first European pole of CAPE multi-leisures DISCOVERED. The history of Blayais was also glorious during the Second world war (1940-1944). Augustin MALROUX, the mayor, was first Tarnais to be launched out to body lost in Resistance. He will pay it his life in the camp of Bergen Belsen. Abel BOUZINAC, the secretary of town hall, Wladislav HAMERLAK, the minor, Yvon LOUBIERE, the conveyer, followed his example against the occupant Nazi and knew the same fate. In all the maquis of the area, the Blayais young people of any origines fought courageously and succeeded in releasing their small fatherland.

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History of the coal basin

The area of Carmaux owed its expansion only with the presence of the coal which its basement contains and it owes the discovery of fuel during water " Cérou " , which crosses the northern part and which revealed the first layer with the " rock of the slope of Ecuelle" (place of the first discovered one), bench of likings, or " rock molard " (local term) containing several coal veins. If the origin of the extraction cannot be exactly given, an old document, dating roughly from the years 1295, makes it possible to locate it at XIIIe century; it states indeed that a right of toll of a sum of money per load to the crossing of the bridge of Albi was charged for the pit coal being used to feed the blacksmiths of the area. Until the XVIIIe century the field of exploitation which was at the west and the north of Carmaux on two banks of Cérou, had at most, from raising to setting, 1.200 to 1.500 measuring apparatuses of wide (the measuring apparatus being worth 1,949 m) and about as much north at midday. In this space one had dug more than 200 hollows or well and more than 300 small excavations which the coalmen of the country called: cellars. Thus the ground was sifted excavations which one succeeded in with large-sorrow tearing off some scraps of layer. These excavations were irregular and the lack of air forced the workmen not to extend their building site far from the opening of the well; in addition, the crumblings were too much to fear to allow the roadway drivage big length. These primitive and defective modes of extraction lasted until approximately 1775. During this time the coal of Carmaux was transported by the road until Gaillac where it was embarked to arrive thus by water way to Toulouse and in Bordeaux where it underwent the competition of the English coal. One evaluates with 500.000 tons the total extraction of coal during five centuries, that is to say years 1250 to 1750 and to 100 million tons since the beginning of XIIIe century until 2000, closing date of the extraction of coal.

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AT the XVIIIe CENTURY

The family of Solages, originating in Rouergue, was represented in Carmaux at the beginning of the XVIIIe century by François-Paul de Solages of which one of the two wire, Gabriel, indicated thereafter under the name of Chevalier of Solages, was to be the craftsman of the expansion of the Mines of Carmaux. Eager to increase the importance of its company and conscious of the difficulties of transport, he sought to on the spot consume most of his products; from there came to him the idea to build a bottle glassmaking for which he requested a concession, granted by decree of the Council of State of May 2nd, 1752. This glassmaking became the largest coal user of the time and required the exploitation of new mines. A payment published in 1744 had put a little order in mining; it fixed the exploitation of the mines to an prior approval and fixed the shape and dimensions of the wells like various security measures to be taken for the extraction. It is under the terms of this Payment that, by stop of the Council of State dated September 12th, 1752, the King granted to the Knight of Solages, for 20 years, the monopoly of the exploitation of the layer of Carmaux. This concession was to be prolonged on different occasions and, in 1782, at the time of a request for extension, the Knight of Solages made the point that extracted coals with 400 or 500 feet (the foot: 0 Mr. 3248) of depth were of a quality found higher than best coals of England, than the navy on the coast of Bordeaux, as well as manufactures of this city, did not employ of it an other, than the province of Languedoc derived great advantages of the company, than, in addition, more than 200 workmen were daily occupied and than finally with cartages and transport, more than 500 families lived mine. The use of the pit coal had replaced that of wood for the cooking of bricks, tiles and limes, thus creating new outlets, while decreasing considerably the cost price of these products, In this second half of the XVIIIe century the majority of the principal pits had been seriously arranged or transformed and we must indicate the great share taken in this improvement of the mining methods, organization of work and the tools, by workmen of the mines of Flandres guided by foremen, called deputies, like by carpenters, timbermen and a director come in the basin about 1750. We will also note the birth of the iron and steel company of the Jump-of-Tarn at the end of the XVIIIe century, following the discovery of an iron layer in the canton of Alban and Villefranche, followed authorization given to the Viscount of Solages to establish in Saint-Juéry, to 6 km upstream of Albi, the fall of the Tarn, said " Jump-of-Sabo" , two blast furnaces and of the Catalan forging mills. MINES OF CARMAUX IN XIX" CENTURY The law of April 21st, 1810 organizing in France the mining property, gave a new rise to the minings; the concessions which were not that temporary became perpetual, available and transmissible like the other goods. The Development companies less hesitated to invest important capital in research tasks and DEC installations of which they could discount to collect the fruits. May 27th, 1839 began the exploitation of Grillatié, whose digging of the well begun on November 10th, 1833, was stopped on May 1st, 1839 with the depth of 226 Mr.; in 1858 was to be undertaken the sinking of the second well put in communication with the first. In 1857, the working of the mines of Carmaux included/understood eight well: ravine, Peyrotte, Cellars of Wood, Saint-Roch or Bowl, Grillatié, Acacias, of Holy-Bore, which in 1863 was to reach 330 Mr. of depth and to become deepest and best arranged, and of the Castilian. In 1872, the Company of the Mines of Carmaux, to meet the needs for consumption made build, for the manufacture of coke, a factory of 80 furnaces of a new system to replace the furnaces of an old model, built before some 25 years. In 1878 the sinking of a large well started known as: well of Tronquié which, provided for a 400 meters depth, was stopped at the end of July 1882 to 386 Mr. the well of Tronquié N° 2, in sinking in 1883 and was intended for the beginning with the ventilation, was finished in 1886 with the depth of 304 Mr. In 1890, in preparation for the moment when the well of Tronquié in full working would replace that of Holy-Bores, the obligation to create a new center of extraction appeared necessary and it is to this end that was undertaken, on July 26th, 1893, the sinking of the well of Sainte-Marie. Work was stopped in March 1896 with the depth of 340 Mr. and the installation of the well N° 1 was ready to function in 1898 and that of the well N° 2 in 1901. At that time, the Company of the Mines of Carmaux employed approximately 3.000 workmen and the extraction reached 500.000 tonnes/an.

MODERN TIMES

From 1900 to 1914 the Mines of Carmaux continued their extension, and technological advances: electric traction by trolley, mechanical cutting, hydraulic stowing, electrification of the bottom supported by the absence of firedamp, go of par with the improvement of the organization of work, the search for new outlets and the adaptation of the products to the commercial requirements. One. particular strain required by the failure of the mines of North and the Pas-de-Calais during the war 1914-1918, brought the annual production of 583.000 T in 1914 to 819.000 in 1917 and 850.000 in 1918. In the following years, the reduction of the outlets corresponding to the renewal of activity of the whole of the French Collieries, as with the reduction in the requests of the railroads which are electrified, causes a fall of the extraction. The latter oscillates of 1918 to 1938 between 550.000 and 700.000 tons, the point low being reached with 520.000 T in 1936, year when the economic crisis leads to a signficant reduction of manpower (2.536 workmen at December 31st, 1936, is the 48% of the manpower of 1918). After this important fall, a rectification due to an increase in manpower (3.662 in 1940) and output, were to make it possible to reach, in 1940, the record production of 1.062.000 tons. The years of occupation again caused a continuous reduction in the production which reached its minimum in 1944 with 470.300 tons, manpower remaining appreciably constant.

The layer of Carmaux was exploited:

- before at 1752, by the small holders; - of 1752 to 1793, by the knight of Solages; - of 1793 at the end of 1794, by the Committee of Public Hello; - of at the end of 1794 to 1801, by the knight of Solages; - of 1801 to 1810, by the Viscount of Solages; - of 1810 to 1856, by the Company of the Mines and the Glassmaking of Carmaux, Solages Father and Fils; - of 1856 to 1866, by the Company of the Collieries and Railroad of Carmaux to Toulouse; - of 1866 with the Nationalization, by the Company of the Mines of Carmaux. - of 1946 to 1969 by the Collieries of the Basin of Aquitaine. - of 1969 to 1983 by the Collieries of the Basin Center Midi. - of 1983 at the end by the Collieries of the Basin Center Midi, Unit of exploitation Tarn then Carmaux.

Administration

Demography

Places and monuments

Personalities related to the commune

See too

Common of the Tarn

External bonds

Blaye-the-Mines on the site of the national geographical Institute
Blaye-the-Mines on the site of INSEE
Blaye-the-Mines on the site of Quid
Localization of Blaye-the-Mines on a chart of France and communes bordering
Plane on Blaye-the-Mines on Mapquest

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