BMU
On 30th January 2003 when the Bassin Minier Uni - BMU (United Mining Region) association took the enterprising and innovative decision to put together and submit a candidate file to the Mining region of the Nord-Pas de Calais for a Cultural Landscape Listing as a UNESCO world heritage site.
This candidate application is significant for a number of reasons. It is about understanding and recognizing the quality and rich variety of the heritage of the Mining region (contained within the overall concept of the Cultural Landscape), contributing to the transformation of the region's image and creating a platform for mining and industrial culture and heritage within local and regional development plans.
Seven years of work have unearthed and underlined the excellence and the extraordinary abundance of the mining heritage of the Nord-Pas de Calais.
Indeed, for a period of almost three centuries, the coal industry shaped this region, its landscapes, its towns, developed its identity and left a lasting impression on lifestyles. Today, many examples remain of the industrial activity that took place in the Mining region, powerfully bearing witness to the massive changes that affected the land and its population through industrialization. These include the technical infrastructures - mine pits and headframes, slag heaps of various shapes and sizes, transport networks (railways and docks) - as well as the social infrastructures - working class towns, schools, churches, hospitals, community centres, sports facilities.... Consequently, the Bassin Minier Uni association has put together a technical candidate application file gathering together a team of key figures and involving the population of the Mining region. A large number of studies have been carried out to draw up this candidate file: inventories of the mining towns, slag heaps, unlisted assets (inventory carried out in partnership with the local authorities).
The Mining region includes the following features:
- 4 major mining "historical monuments": pit no. 11-19 at Loos-en-Gohelle, pit no. 9-9b at Oignies, the Arenberg pit at Wallers-Arenberg, the Delloye pit at Lewarde (Mining historical centre)
- 21 headframes
- About 200 slag heaps
- 563 mining towns and their community organizations (church, schools, stadia, health centres…)
- Over 200 kilometres of railways
The application of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining region to the World Heritage site listing as a Cultural Landscape site includes
- 17 pits and significant pit remains,
- 21 headframes,
- 51 slag heaps,
- 54 kilometres of old railways,
- 3 railway stations,
- 124 mining towns,
- 46 schools, 26 churches and chapels,
- 24 health facilities,
- 6 leisure facilities,
- 3 mining company offices,
- 9880 acres of landscape
St Ame's headframe
Since its creation, the BMU association has also been involved in work for the community. By opening its doors to volunteers interested in the region's future, the BMU has given impetus to the creation of workshops and clubs. For example, Father Michel BECQUART and the Lens mining towns club have rekindled the Sainte-Barbe festival in his area. As well as a mass and a procession, the father organizes an intergenerational gathering each year on a particular theme (retired miners, marriage at the mine...). This day finishes with a bonfire involving everyone.
An initial success was the application of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining region to the World Heritage site listing submitted by the State of France to the World Heritage Centre on 25th January 2010. This will be assessed at the next annual meeting of the World heritage committee in 2011 or 2012.
The town of Lens is a member of the club of BMU communities.
