The Borinage region in the South of the Hainaut province played a major role in this development. The Borinage already had a long coal cultures, starting in the early 18th century, when farmers dug up coal from their fields. Coal was used initially for domestic purposes. By 1730, 110 pits operated in the region. In the year 1820, ¾ of the coal demand in France was supplied from the Borinage.At its peak, the Hainaut region provided 30% of world coal supply in 1870.
During the coal boom, the region failed to develop other industries,and become too much dependent on its coal industry. After the gradual decline and eventual demise of the industry in the 20th century, the region was bled white.
The resulting abject poverty of the Borinage was captured by the 1933 documentary by Henri Storck and Joris Ivens ‘Misère Au Borinage’. It shows the slums surrounding mines, high unemployment, child labour, … A recent movie from Patric Jean shows that these conditions still continue until today, though the mines have now closed meanwhile.
Back in 1810, things looked much brighter. The world was rapidly moving away from charcoal to coal, for which demand was insatiable. Between 1810 to 1830 (the year of Belgium’s independence), Henri De Gorge developed Grand-Hornu, increased its annual production from 10,000 tonnes to 120,000 tonnes. The number of pits grew from 2 to 12.
He built an elegant complex of offices, stables, workshops, foundries and furnaces in neo-classical style. He surrounded it with 440 worker’s houses. With 2 floors of 3 rooms each, they were beyond comparison with living conditions elsewhere in the region in terms of luxury and facilities. The site included a hospital, food shop, a bakery, butchery, schools, recreation facilities, ...
Grand-Hornu is unique in various respects. For its elegant, classicist architecture which is unusual for an industrial estate. Or for its scale of industrial paternalism. It was not unusual for industry to provide housing to workers, but not at the scale of 440 units. The story of Grand-Hornu is also a story of early industrialisation, when captains of industry lacked infrastructure taken for granted today. Grand-Hornu, together with a couple of other collieries has been proposed for the tentative list of Unesco World Heritage sites.
Did Henri De Gorges take care well of his employees? Was he a social entrepreneur ahead of his time? The rationale of building these relatively comfortable homes was to attract and retain workers in the mine. With a shortage of labour, and many pits operating in the region and in Northern France competing for skilled labourers, Grand-Hornu depended on sufficient manpower for its development.
On the one hand, we see a picture of benevolent paternalism, where Henri De Gorge provides an income, housing, healthcare, food, education and recreation to his employees. On the other, we learn that workers could never buy but only rent their housing on a weekly basis, and remain there only as long as they were employed by the mine. There were problems with health - 35% of miners suffers from nystagmus, a condition of involuntary eye movement, 60% were affected by silicosis, a respiratory disease (which was only recognised in 1964 as an occupational hazard). In the early days, the use of naked-flame lamps caused frequent, deadly accidents.
The actual situation will probably have been somewhere in the middle between benevolent paternalism and ruthless exploitation, though most sources tend to report in favour of Henri De Gorge.
Grand-Hornu, remained in operation until 1954. The current site is still largely preserved, used as a culture centre. It houses the Musée des Arts Contemporain (MAC; same times; www.mac-s.be ). The houses around Grand-Hornu remain occupied, though now in private ownership. The visit to the estate, including audio-guide takes about an hour.
References
- Fontaine, J. (2011, May 21). Borinage. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 10, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borinage
- Grand-Hornu. (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2011, from http://www.grand-hornu.be/
- Greefs, H., Blonde, B., & Clark, P. (2005). Chapter 13. In Towns, regions and industries (pp. 210-211). Manchester University Press.
Google Books http://bit.ly/ujTTQz - Hudson, K. (1979). World Industrial Archaeology (pp. 60-62). Cambridge University Press.
Available as Google Book http://bit.ly/rLhiFJ - Jean, P. (Director). (2011, June 8). Poverty in former coalmine area [Video]. Retrieved December 10, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZxEMDc1M80
- Les sites miniers majeurs de Wallonie. (2008, April 8). UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved December 10, 2011, from http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5363/
- Misère au Borinage. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 9, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misère_au_Borinage
- [Preface]. (1981). In G. L. Brabander (Author), Regional specialization, employment, and economic growth in Belgium from 1846 to 1970 (p. I). New York: Arno Press.
Also available through Google Books http://bit.ly/ui7Pji