History
Coal was discovered in the valley of Santullán in 1838 and the first continuous extraction in what would become the Vallejo de Orbó area was begun by the Sociedad Esperanza de Reinosa from around 1840. The Pozo San Rafael was sunk in 1874 by the Sociedad Minera La Esperanza de Reinosa, on the site of an exhausted mountain working known as the Mina de Montaña San Ignacio, to access deeper coal reserves. The shaft had a square section measuring three metres to a side and reached an initial depth of 112 metres, to the level of the old San Ignacio mountain working which lay twelve metres below the brink of the shaft.
It was one of the very few vertical master shafts opened before the twentieth century in the Barruelo coalfield. Shortly after opening, water infiltration became a serious problem. In 1879 the engineer Mariano Zuaznávar Arrascaeta took charge of operations and in response to both the drainage problem and the need to ventilate the workings and transport coal more efficiently, he designed and oversaw the construction of a navigable underground canal — the Canal de Orbó.
This canal was driven from the 112-metre level of the Pozo San Rafael and extended 1,775 metres to a point near the railway station at Cillamayor, allowing coal to be transported by barge through the subterranean waterway and brought to a coal washing and classification facility at the surface. The canal functioned from around 1879 to 1895; according to one source it was briefly opened in 1884 and operated until 1895. The Canal de Orbó was a unique engineering work in Spanish mining, with no comparable example elsewhere in the country.
The shaft collar was topped with a headframe of brick and dressed masonry. In 1901 the shaft was deepened to a first underground level (primer piso) at 150 metres depth. At this time Zuaznávar also oversaw the renewal of the extraction machine and the boilers and drove a new transversal gallery.
The canal subterráneo was electrified in 1916 during a later phase of development. Between 1926 and 1928 the shaft was deepened further by means of a counter-shaft (contrapozo) sited 350 metres from the main shaft, giving two additional working levels (cuarto piso at 374 metres and quinto piso at 438 metres), with a sump of 14 metres below the lowest level. The extraction machinery in 1927 consisted of a steam engine with two horizontal cylinders and a power of 100 HP, pulling cages loaded with a single wagon on a flat cable; this was subsequently replaced by an electric machine.
Ownership of the mine passed to Minas de Barruelo S.A. between 1926 and 1928, which continued to operate the colliery and make improvements until 1965, when the concessions were sold to Hullera Vasco-Leonesa. A workers' colony at Vallejo de Orbó, which had grown up alongside the mine from the 1860s onwards and had been expanded by the II Marqués de Comillas through the Carbonera Española from around 1909, reached a population of nearly 2,000 at its peak, with amenities including a school, hospital, pharmacy, cooperative store, cine, and public lighting. The Cine Ideal of Vallejo de Orbó was the first purpose-built cinema in the province of Palencia.
Hullera Vasco-Leonesa closed the Pozo San Rafael in 1969, the same year in which the Pozo Peragido in Barruelo closed. After closure the mine buildings were largely abandoned. The brick-and-masonry headframe of the Pozo San Rafael survived, along with the visible upper portion of the Canal de Orbó arch bearing the monogram of the Sociedad Esperanza and the date 1883.
In 2012 the Asociación para la Recuperación del Patrimonio Industrial (ARPI) was formed by local volunteers, descendants of miners, and industrial heritage enthusiasts. ARPI acquired ownership of the castillete Rafael, the bocamina San Ignacio, the canal remains, the church, and a miners' dwelling. Restoration interventions undertaken by ARPI include the fitting of a roof cover to the Pozo San Rafael, the clearing of the dársena of the canal, the enabling of access to the bocamina San Ignacio, and the acquisition of an old extraction machine for the site.
The Diputación de Palencia and the Junta de Castilla y León have subsequently provided financial support. The castillete del Pozo San Rafael is now a focal point for heritage events in the area, including the annual Procesión de las Lámparas on the feast of Santa Bárbara (4 December), which concludes at the headframe.