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Origin and history

The coron of the church of La Sentinelle, located in the department of Nord (Hautes-de-France), is a collection of mining housing built in the first half of the 19th century, near an old coal pit converted into a church. The first 32 houses were built in 1825 under the original name of Le Nouveau Monde, forming one of the oldest preserved examples of mining workers' cities. The houses, made of brick and arranged in symmetrical rows with gardens, reflect the utilitarian and social architecture of the corons, designed to house the families of miners.

The Sentinel pit, dug from 1818 by the Compagnie des Mines d'Anzin, ceased extractive activity in 1830. The well, 170 metres deep, was tightened in 1852, then transformed into a Saint-Barbe church, blessed in 1854. The adjacent coron, originally intended to house the workers, gradually expanded to 88 dwellings, supplemented by public facilities such as supplies and wells. Part of the whole, located west of the church, was destroyed in the 1970s to build a public square.

The Coron de l'Église has been listed as a historical monument since 1 December 2009 for its facades and roofs.It is one of the 109 sites in the mining basin listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 30 June 2012. This site, managed today by Soginorpa, illustrates the heritage conversion of industrial infrastructures in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The dwellings, restored in the 1980s, retain distinct architectural features: long-paned roofs for the oldest, rumps in Flemish tile for later extensions, and brick models for facades.

The coron's spatial organization, with its rows of aligned houses and gardens bounded by troene hedges, met the logistical and social control needs of the mining company. The archives mention a construction cost of 40,050 francs for the first 32 houses in 1825, with bricks made on site. The site appeared on cadastral plans as early as 1830, reflecting its early integration into the urban landscape of La Sentinelle.

At the beginning of the 21st century, Charbonnages de France materialized the head of the extraction well, while the BRGM conducts annual inspections to monitor the state of underground infrastructure. The Coron, today private property, remains a symbol of the industrial and social history of the region, where coal mining has shaped lifestyles and urban planning for more than a century.

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