France's largest coal mining museum, the Centre historique minier, occupies the preserved carreau of the former fosse Delloye at Lewarde, a UNESCO World Heritage site open to visitors year-round.
The fosse Delloye, owned by the Compagnie des mines d'Aniche and sited at Lewarde near Douai in the Nord département, began its development in 1911 when the fonçage of puits n°1 was started. The work was interrupted by the First World War and resumed in 1921; the fosse entered production in 1927, exploiting a deposit of charbon gras and demi-gras. Puits n°2 was begun in 1927 and started production in 1931.
The fosse was named after Joseph Delloye, an administrator of the Compagnie des mines d'Aniche. After nationalisation in 1946 the fosse was integrated into the Groupe de Douai. The fosse Vuillemin was concentrated on Delloye in 1955.
Extraction became unprofitable because the seams were rarely more than one metre wide, and the fosse closed on 15 July 1971. In 1973, the management of the Houillères du Bassin du Nord et du Pas-de-Calais, led by Secretary General Alexis Destruys, chose the Delloye site for a mining history centre. The Centre historique minier association was launched on 4 July 1982 and the museum opened to the public in May 1984.
The surface installations were classified as a monument historique in September 2009 and the fosse was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 30 June 2012.
The fonçage of puits n°1 of the fosse Delloye — 4 metres in diameter, intended for extraction — began in 1911. The work was interrupted by the First World War and did not resume until 1921. The fosse entered production in 1927, the first seam exploited being the veine Joseph, from a deposit of charbon gras and demi-gras.
The fosse was named after Joseph Delloye, an administrator of the Compagnie des mines d'Aniche. The fonçage of puits n°2 (5 metres in diameter), also intended for extraction and for service, began in 1927. Production from puits n°2 started in 1931; in its first year, 18,634 tonnes of coal were extracted.
The two shafts operated autonomously, both serving for extraction of coal and for return of air. The fosse Sébastopol d'Erchin served as the dedicated return-air shaft. Coal was triaged at the fosse then sent by railway to the lavoir of the fosse Gayant at Waziers.
During more than forty years of operation, over 1,000 miners worked on the site, producing up to 1,500 net tonnes of coal per day. Production peaked in 1963 at more than 440,000 tonnes. The Compagnie des mines d'Aniche was nationalised along with the rest of the coalfield in 1946 and the fosse was integrated into the Groupe de Douai under the Houillères du Bassin du Nord et du Pas-de-Calais (HBNPC).
In 1955 the fosse Vuillemin was concentrated on Delloye, along with its ventilation shaft Sébastopol. From 1967 studies confirmed that the seams were approaching exhaustion; the coal was of good quality but the seams were narrow, rarely reaching one metre in width, making extraction increasingly unprofitable. The fosse closed on 15 July 1971.
During the course of its operation the fosse experienced approximately forty accidents, four of which caused the deaths of five miners, in 1953, 1954, and 1966. A mine collapse on 25 March 1966 at 377 metres depth in the veine du Grand Moulin killed two miners and injured a third. After closure, the management of the HBNPC — and in particular its Secretary General Alexis Destruys — wished to create a mining history centre to commemorate three centuries of mining activity in the region.
The project was validated in 1973 and the fosse Delloye, then in process of dismantling, was chosen for its representative character of the inter-war period and its central position within the coalfield, close to the motorway network. As other fosses in the coalfield closed, their equipment and documents were transferred to Delloye. The Centre historique minier association was launched on 4 July 1982, with the involvement of the French Ministry of Culture, the Nord-Pas de Calais Regional Council, the Nord Departmental Council, and the HBNPC.
The Centre historique minier opened to the public in May 1984. Since then it has grown into France's largest mining museum, covering 8,000 m² of industrial buildings on a site of 8 hectares, with 450 metres of accessible reconstructed galleries and 2,700 metres of archives. The museum holds 7,000 volumes, 550,000 photographic documents, 500 films, 350 videograms, and 300 sound recordings.
At the start of the twenty-first century, Charbonnages de France capped the wellheads of puits Delloye n°1 and n°2 and installed firedamp vents. The surface installations were classified as a monument historique on 21 September 2009. The fosse Delloye was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 30 June 2012, forming site n°23 among the 353 elements across 109 sites that make up the Bassin minier Nord-Pas-de-Calais.
The two chevalements of the fosse Delloye, belonging to the Compagnie des mines d'Aniche, are distinguished by their pagoda-shaped roofs. From 2018 the Centre historique minier undertook a comprehensive reorganisation of its energy science cultural centre. In 2026 a renovation of chevalement n°2 is under way.
