Gouley Pit

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Gouley Pit
General information about the mine
Gouley1900.jpg
Postcard of the Gouley mine around 1900
Mining technology Underground mining
Funding / year Max. = 830,500 t
Information about the mining company
Operating company Eschweiler Mining Association
Employees Max. 3200
Start of operation 1599
End of operation 1969
Funded raw materials
Degradation of Hard coal
Geographical location
Coordinates 50 ° 49 '57 "  N , 6 ° 7' 7"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 49 '57 "  N , 6 ° 7' 7"  E
Gouley mine (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Gouley Pit
Location pit Gouley
Location Morsbach
local community Würselen
country State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Country Germany
District Aachen district

The Gouley mine was a mine in Morsbach , a district of Würselen . It was one of the oldest mines in the Aachen coal field and mined coal until 1969 .

history

Former mining tunnel

The mine was mentioned for the first time in 1599 in the Aachen coal works register. At that time it was registered as "Gute Ley", which means something like good rock . In 1807, under French rule in the Rhineland, it was newly licensed as "Gouley".

In 1817 the Liège manufacturer Gérard Demet bought the mine and modernized it. In 1819 he had the old dewatering ("Roßkunst") replaced by a first steam engine and the existing shafts were sunk further . This made the pit more productive again and in 1843 was able to take the lead in all the pits in the worm area with around 50,000 tons of coal .

In 1834 there was a serious mine disaster on the night of January 25th to 26th . Due to the high water pressure, masses of water from higher-lying, charred mine structures had pressed into deeper structures that were in operation. Of the 74 miners employed in the affected area at the time, only the eleven slingers and horse drivers who were currently working near the shaft were able to save themselves . After several days of rescue attempts, this was unsuccessful on February 6th. The large number of casualties led to a high willingness to donate throughout the entire Reich. The Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. and his sons donated a total of 1,100 thalers. All of the donations were used to generate pensions for the families concerned, which were paid over a period of 12 years. The last donations were made in 1858 to those particularly hard hit. The mining accident gave the ultimate impetus for the establishment of an organized miners' union in the Wurm district, even though the Prussian Finance Minister Albrecht Graf von Alvensleben only issued the "Knappschafts ordinance for the trade union coal mines in the Wurm district" on May 17, 1839.

In 1858 the Association for Hard Coal Construction in the Wurmrevier took over the mine and built a new boiler house in 1860. In 1875 Gouley received a railway connection from the Würselen station to the Aachen industrial railway , which had been founded with the participation of the association for the development of the pits and industrial plants of the Aachen district. In 1892, the Würselen - Kohlscheid line was put into operation by the Prussian State Railroad , which had taken over the industrial line in 1887 , using the connecting railway . This enabled the coal to be transported from Gouley to the briquette factory in Kohlscheid .

In the course of 1897, the association laid a utility water line from the Groube Gouley to the community mine. At the company's expense, a branch was laid through various streets of Bardenberg . The municipality of Bardenberg set up seven taps at this branch at its own expense to supply the population with water.

In 1899 a new extraction shaft was sunk, which was later named after Robert von Görschen, the long-time chairman of the supervisory board, Von-Görschen-Schacht . In 1907 the Eschweiler Bergwerksverein (EBV) took over the association and with it Gouley. In 1914, over 2000 miners were employed on Gouley. After the end of the First World War , the production had to be temporarily stopped after the Aachen area was occupied by Belgian and French troops.

During the Second World War , forced laborers were also used on Gouley , who had to fill in the gaps created by conscription. Due to the fighting in the Aachen area, the aboveground mine systems were badly damaged, as Gouley had been lying in the main battle line for a long time. Power outages also caused damage underground . The power supply to Gouley could only be maintained via a temporary cable that had been laid underground to the neighboring Laurweg mine .

In 1951 Gouley was connected to Laurweg via a blind shaft , both mines were combined to form the Gouley-Laurweg composite mine . This made sense because both pits only produced anthracite for house firing and the Laurweg systems were largely out of date. Until 1955, funding was still carried out in parallel on Laurweg, after which it was exclusively in Würselen. In order to cope with the larger flow rate, the coal washing facility on Gouley had to be rebuilt, the filling locations at the “Von-Görschen-Schacht” expanded and the mine station expanded. Until 1960 Laurweg was still used for material and personnel transport, from this year the entire workforce was able to drive into Gouley thanks to the completion of a new wash house . In the same year, a new, almost 70 m high concrete headframe was completed above the “Von-Görschen-Schacht”. Due to the necessity to be able to use the old steel scaffolding during the construction for a cable car ride , an unusual tower was built that was almost on stilts. Also in 1960, six miners of the 3200-strong workforce were killed by a longwall break . The daily output of Gouley was now up to 3000 tons. This year the mine reached its maximum output of 830,500 tons.

The constant decline in demand due to the conversion from heating to oil or gas led to sales problems for Gouley coal. Nevertheless, a new level was set up at 850 m in 1964 and the production shaft was further sunk accordingly. As early as 1967, however, the output was steadily reduced and the mine was finally shut down on March 31, 1969. The shafts and mine workings were used for a few years to keep the water in the neighboring pits in the Wurmrevier and in the Netherlands.

traces

There are hardly any traces left by the pit. In 1987 the colliery was demolished and the concrete headframe no longer stands. It was blown up on August 4, 1994. Gouley's shafts and tunnels are covered , but are still subject to mountain supervision. In the Wurmtal there is still a tunnel mouth hole by Gouley. The tunnel, which was built in 1837, was originally used for conveying and finally for drainage of the mine. In Würselen itself, the “Gouleystraße” and the “Gouleypark” keep the memory of the mine alive.

In the meantime, it is being investigated whether the pit water from the disused pits in the Aachen district can be used to generate geothermal energy . The old Gouley shaft is also included.

literature

  • Daniel Salber: The Aachen area. 150 years of coal mining at Wurm and Inde. Verlag Schweers + Wall, Aachen 1987, ISBN 3921679567

Individual evidence

  1. Matthias Kaever: The non-renewable energy sources between Rur and Maas. LIT Verlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 978-3825874247 , p. 214
  2. ^ Mining and railways in the Aachen-Düren-Heinsberg region: Gouley, Würselen
  3. Würselen, City of Boys' Games, new citizens brochure ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 4.6 MB)
  4. Naturfreunde Eschweiler: Hike: Through river and brook meadows from Herzogenrath to Laurensberg, July 30, 2006
  5. Berthold Strauch: New energy gushes out of the old mines, AZ-WEB.DE, February 6, 2007 ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

Commons : Grube Gouley  - Collection of images, videos and audio files