Zeche Erin — Schacht 7 Castrop-Rauxel · Nordrhein-Westfalen · Germany

The origins of Zeche Erin lie in the consolidation in 1858 of several coal field properties in the Castrop area by the Irish engineer and entrepreneur William Thomas Mulvany. The name Erin derives from the Celtic name for Ireland — Eire — and was chosen by Mulvany as a reference to his homeland. Under the financial backing of the Preußische Bergwerks- und Hütten-AG, Mulvany sank Schächte 1 and 2 at the Karlstraße in Castrop. The two shafts were placed only 20 metres apart, following British practice, and a shared machine house was built between them, with the ropes directed over two projecting arms through the gable walls of the house and down into each shaft. Rather than the masonry Malakowturm headframes then common in the Ruhr, Mulvany erected only wooden headframes as was customary on his other collieries, following English practice. Coal production began in 1867. By 1870 the mine had produced over 87,000 tonnes and, as fat coal could be worked in depths of about 200 metres, the company built the first 20 coke ovens with beehive kilns in 1870.

In the years that followed, several firedamp explosions caused deaths, and repeated severe water ingress repeatedly disrupted operations and drained the capital reserves of the operating company. In 1877 the Preußische Bergwerks- und Hütten-AG declared insolvency. The mine was kept open only provisionally and produced coal solely for its own use. This precarious situation explains why Zeche Erin was not incorporated into the Hibernia AG grouping when Mulvany's other collieries Hibernia and Shamrock were consolidated into that concern. In 1882 the entrepreneur Friedrich Grillo formed a new Gewerkschaft Erin and, investing new capital and deploying heavy pumping machinery, succeeded in dewatering the flooded workings. The wooden headframes had already been replaced by iron ones in 1883.

In 1887 the Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG (GBAG) acquired Zeche Erin, together with its coking plant. The GBAG invested comprehensively and the coking plant was replaced by a new facility in subsequent years. The headframe arrangement over Schächte 1 and 2 was replaced by a distinctive Ruhr construction: two small German streben headframes, connected by a footbridge, erected as so-called siamesische Zwillinge over the two shafts. Between 1889 and 1891 Schacht Erin 3 was sunk to the east of Schächte 1 and 2 as a winding and ventilation shaft, reducing the firedamp risk significantly; an iron headframe was initially erected over it. Between 1890 and 1892 Schacht 4 was sunk alongside Schacht 1/2 as a ventilation shaft. By 1887 production had risen to 361,000 tonnes with a workforce of 1,200. The expanded production placed GBAG at the top rank of German coke-producing companies. In 1902 a mining official's residence was built beside Schacht 3.

From April to July 1923 Zeche Erin was under French occupation during the passive resistance period; production fell to only 188,930 tonnes across the whole year despite 3,272 employees. From 1925 the closed Zeche Teutoburgia in Herne was connected to the Erin 1/2/4 complex; Schacht Teutoburgia 1 continued as a winding shaft and Schacht Teutoburgia 2 served from 1934 as a ventilation shaft. In 1926, with the formation of the Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG, the mining interests around Castrop and Sodingen were reorganised. In 1929 the original streben headframe over Schacht 3 was replaced by a closed hammerkopf steel lattice tower. This structure had originally stood over Schacht 2 of Zeche Vereinigte Westphalia in Dortmund; its relocation to Schacht 3 Erin was one of the rare cases of headframe translocation in the Ruhr. In 1930 the old coking plant was replaced by a modern new installation. In 1937 production at Schacht 3 was suspended as part of plans to develop Schacht 1/2/4 into a central winding installation.

From 1956 the mine was operated by the Dortmunder Bergbau-AG. By 1957 coking production had reached a peak of 832,330 tonnes. Schacht 7, located near the town centre, was sunk in 1953 and brought into service as the main production shaft in 1963; its 68-metre steel lattice headframe, with its prominent Erin lettering, became a landmark of the city. From this point the entire Erin output was brought to surface through Schacht 7. Schächte 1 and 2 were progressively withdrawn from production by 1962 and continued only as ventilation shafts, with the twin headframe replaced by a smaller installation. Rationalisation measures were carried out from 1966. In 1967 the mine was sold to the Eschweiler Bergwerks-Verein (EBV). Under EBV management, Erin received reserve fields from Zeche Lothringen and Zeche Graf Schwerin, and the Schacht Lothringen 6 was taken over as a ventilation shaft. Pioneer work in mechanisation was carried out on Erin: coal planing with a ramming body had been introduced in the mid-1950s, and the first fully automated face in the Ruhr coalfield operated here from 1964. The highest annual output was 1,480,855 tonnes in 1973, in which year the sixth working level at 900 metres depth was also opened, yielding high-quality coking coal.

From 1982 the sharp onset of a sales crisis led the EBV to plan withdrawal from the mining business. Zeche Erin, approaching 120 years of production and lacking sufficient reserve capacity, was scheduled for closure. On 23 December 1983 production was finally halted. The coking plant was extinguished in 1984. Castrop-Rauxel thereby lost both its first and its last producing colliery.

All shafts were filled after closure. The winding tower over Schacht 7 had been freed for scrapping but was saved through the intervention of the local photographer Klaus Michael Lehmann with support from the NRW-Stiftung; it was subsequently restored and stands as a listed industrial monument. The hammerkopf tower over Schacht 3, at 32 metres high, is also preserved as a listed monument on the Schellenberg site; a Celtic tree circle was laid out around it in memory of the Irish founder Mulvany. The former working premises were largely demolished, apart from some administrative buildings. The former site of Erin 1/2/4/7 was redeveloped as a technology and commercial park, known as the Mulvany Center in reference to the founder. The landscape design incorporated the foundations of Schächte 1 and 2 as conical earthworks and included water features, with reference to Irish landscape themes. The former Schacht 4 site is now built over.