Former Loire coalfield site at La Ricamarie with a preserved 1950 concrete headframe at puits des Combes, inscribed monument historique, and the musée de la mine Michel-Rondet.
La Ricamarie, in the Ondaine valley south-west of Saint-Étienne, was a central commune of the bassin houiller de la Loire, the oldest and once the largest coalfield in France. Documented extraction dates from around 1267; large-scale industrial mining developed through the nineteenth century. The town is inseparable from its mining history: it was the birthplace of Michel Rondet, founder of the French miners' trade unions and federations, and the site of the fusillade du Brûlé on 16 June 1869, in which troops fired on striking miners, killing fourteen.
The puits des Combes was established from 1931 as a bure (underground connection), deepened to 469 metres in 1949, and equipped with its surviving concrete headframe of 29 metres, completed in 1950. Extraction here ceased in 1972 but the puits served for water management until final closure in 1983. The last active shaft of the Loire basin, the puits Pigeot at La Ricamarie, closed in 1983 and was dynamited in 1989, leaving no surface trace.
The puits des Combes headframe and buildings were purchased by the commune to prevent demolition and inscribed as a monument historique on 3 November 2003. The musée de la mine Michel-Rondet, established in 1980, occupies adjacent premises.
The bassin houiller de la Loire extends approximately 50 kilometres from Firminy to Rive-de-Gier, passing through La Ricamarie, Saint-Étienne, and Saint-Chamond. Documented extraction dates from around 1267, making it one of the oldest coalfields in France. Artisanal exploitation from surface outcrops developed from the medieval period and was formalised through successive concessions. In the first half of the nineteenth century the Loire basin was the premier coal producer in France, representing around 80 per cent of national output; 500,000 tonnes were extracted in 1824, 1 million in 1835, 2 million in 1854, and 3 million in 1864. In the 1860s the basin was definitively surpassed by the Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The period 1876 to 1890 was marked by catastrophic mine explosions: 186 dead at puits Jabin in 1876, 210 dead at puits Verpilleux in 1889, and 111 dead at puits Pélissier in 1890.
La Ricamarie occupies the Ondaine valley on the north flank of the bassin, to the south-west of Saint-Étienne. On 16 June 1869, troops escorting arrested strikers near the hameau du Brûlé fired on a crowd of miners' families attempting to block their passage, killing fourteen persons including a baby of seventeen months. Michel Rondet, who had played a central role in organising the strike, was arrested and sentenced to seven months imprisonment but later pardoned. Rondet subsequently became the founder of the first miners' unions and federations in France; a bronze statue of 2.10 metres, the work of sculptor Joseph Lamberton, stands on the place Michel Rondet before the mairie. The event and the 1869 strike more widely are thought to have provided material used by Émile Zola in Germinal. A monument of 3.60 metres with fourteen stars for the victims, the work of sculptor Victor Caniato, was inaugurated on 24 June 1989.
The Houillères de Montrambert et de la Béraudière constructed the cité des Combes in 1922 to house Polish immigrant workers from Poznań and Katowice with their families. The puits des Combes was established from 1931, initially as a bure — an underground passage linking galleries without a surface connection. It was deepened in 1949 to 469 metres and it was during this deepening and in the context of the Marshall Plan that the surviving concrete headframe and associated buildings were constructed. The chevalement was completed in 1950, reaching 29 metres in height; it belongs to the second generation of concrete headframes that became common in the Loire from the 1930s, a tradition associated with the engineering firms operating from Lyon that included engineers Limousin and Freyssinet. The machine d'extraction is at ground level; the chevalement has no poussards, its stability being provided by the mass of the lower building. In 1960 the puits des Combes was extracting 1,200 tonnes of coal per day. The ore fell onto a trémie then onto a conveyor belt that followed the hillside to the lavoir at the puits Pigeot, where washing and lamp facilities were located.
The law of 17 May 1946 nationalised all French collieries. A decree of June 1946 created the Houillères du Bassin de la Loire (HBL). Reorganisation from 1950 concentrated extraction in the western basin; the eastern basin closed entirely. A peak workforce of 22,000 was recorded in 1946 and 1948. Production stood at 4 million tonnes in 1946, falling to 3 million in 1960, 1.5 million in 1970, less than 500,000 in 1975, and 150,000 in 1980. The workforce fell to 730 by 1979.
The puits des Combes became a puits d'exhaure in 1972, with pumps maintaining the water level at -60 metres and directing water via a conduit to the sea through the Galerie de la Mer. It remained in this function as a dependency of puits Pigeot until final closure. The puits Pigeot at La Ricamarie, sunk from 1932 and the last extraction shaft in the Loire basin, closed on 27 December 1983. About 170 miners were working in the final months. Anticipating closure, the municipality of La Ricamarie purchased the puits des Combes to prevent the demolition by the Houillères that was planned. The puits Pigeot tower was dynamited on 10 February 1989 and no surface traces remain. The musée de la mine Michel-Rondet, named after the miners' union founder, was established in 1980 by the section locale des mineurs CGT, and is located on the place des écoles du Centre, adjacent to the mairie. Its collection comprises tools, instruments, miner and surveyor equipment, minerals, fossils, documents, and photographs, including reconstructions of gallery techniques and scale models of puits des Combes and puits Pigeot. The puits des Combes headframe and surface buildings were inscribed to the Inventaire supplémentaire des Monuments Historiques by arrêté of 3 November 2003.
