CMCF Oignies, Oignies

The Henri Charvet Pit No. 2 of the Compagnie des mines d'Ostricourt is a former colliery in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais mining basin, located in Oignies. Work began on July 3, 1860, and the pit began operating in September 1863. The wooden casing was reinforced with a cast iron liner in 1870 because it was leaking too much. Sedans were then used to bring up the coal. The casing was reinforced again in 1890. The pit was destroyed during the First World War. In 1937, it was decided that this pit would become a concentration site for the company. The pit was enlarged to a diameter of 5.30 meters. In this sense, large housing estates began to be built in the 1940s.

The Compagnie des mines d'Ostricourt was nationalized in 1946 and became part of the Oignies Group. The Second World War slowed down the modernization work, which was not completed until 1950. The concentration of pits nos. 1, 3, 5 and 6 of the former Compagnie des mines d'Ostricourt was effective at that date. The housing estates were then extended, and a wide variety of housing was built. Various laundries and factories were built on the pit floor, and the central workshops and large offices of the Oignies Group were built nearby. The pit stopped mining in 1976, the shaft was filled in the following year, and the headframe was destroyed the following year. The slag heap No. 115 was then partially exploited.

At the beginning of the XXIst century, Charbonnages de France materializes the head of pit no 2. The large offices and the workshops of the pit were destroyed in 2000 and 2003 respectively, the footbridge and the lamp house in 2007. There are still many buildings on the pit floor. In November 2009, the building of the extraction machine and the image mine are respectively classified and registered as historical monuments. The slag heap no. 115A, 2 d'Oignies, is part of the protected area of the image mine, the slag heap no. 115, 2 du téléphérique, is a protected natural area, the slag heap no. 247, Cavalier du 2 d'Oignies à A1, has disappeared. In the early 2010s, the 1940s housing estate was renovated. The other housing estates were renovated shortly before. On the one hand, the slag heap No. 115, 2 of the cable car, the modern city of the Faisanderie, its school, its church Saint-Henri, the modern city of the forest, the housing estate 1940, and on the other hand, the pit No. 2, its mine-image, and the slag heap No. 115A, 2 of Oignies, were classified on June 30, 2012 as a World Heritage Site by Unesco.