The Pit-Head Frame

  The head frame for shaft 11

 A listed construction, this commanding pit-head frame looks down on the surrounding country from its 64-metre (210-foot) height. At its summit, now accessible via the panoramic lift, reading the landscape reveals traces left by the mining operation: housing (miners' cottages), slag heaps, railways... An open-air history and geography lesson.

What is it?

The pit-head frame is the metallic construction crowning the mineshaft. It was formerly used to support the lift which took men, equipment and empty wagons down the shaft, bringing the wagons up full. The lift cables, connected to the engine located in a contiguous building, passed over the two wheels at the top of the structure, plunging vertically down the shaft and supporting the lift cages.

A little history...
 
In the 19th century, shaft 11 was equipped with a 2-cylinder horizontal extraction machine which was much lower than the current structure. The system consisted of a structure supporting two flat pulleys. A winch was installed in the axis of the pit-head frame, which was also the axis of the shaft. This was made up of a horizontal axle bearing two drums for flat cables.  Two cables were sent down the shaft via these pulleys. They rolled up in opposite directions: when one cable was pulled up, the other was let down, lifting and descending the two cages fixed to their ends. The required energy was provided by a steam engine. The cages were used to extract the coal and transport workers and equipment.

The current pit-head frame was built in 1947. The new frame, 64 metres (210 feet) in height, was put into service in 1950 and given listed status on 8 September 1989. It is made entirely of metal.
It has a lattice structure, with its constituent parts assembled with rivets.  The design and the preliminary study were carried out by the "Société Cockerill", which owned and operated the site.  The structure was overseen by "Ateliers d'Enghien Saint-Eloi", with the assembly entrusted to "Ateliers métallurgiques AM". Certain elements were manufactured by "Ateliers de Baume" (La Louvière) and "Ateliers de Marpent" (northern France). This new frame supports two pulleys, each of 6.9 metres (23 feet) in diameter, one above the other in the same vertical plane. Known as "Koepe" pulleys, they are equipped with grooves, and are designed for use with round steel cables. At each end of the cable was fixed a lift cage, which could contain 12 wagons, each of 800 litres' capacity, enabling daily production of 400 to 560 tonnes. The pit-head frame is the last remnant of coal production in the Mons-Borinage region.