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Origin and history

The city of the Combe des Mineurs, also known as Combe des Anglais, was built in 1826 in the Creusot (Saône-et-Loire) by English forge masters Aaron Manby and Daniel Wilson. These industrialists, who arrived in January 1826, housed a colony of English steel workers recruited with their families, under contracts providing for suitable accommodation. The site, originally called Combe ou Combe des Nouillots, breaks with the local barracks (collective housing) by offering 41 individual brick houses, organized in terraces to marry the slope. Each 23 m2 housing, inspired by Welsh dualrows, includes two main rooms and annexes for coal or agricultural activities.

In 1830, the city housed both miners and metalworkers. Around 1850, there were 230 inhabitants (5 per dwelling on average). Changes began in 1880: expansions, partial destruction in 1913 to expand a street, and construction of a washhouse in 1919 (rebuilt in 1952 after the 1943 bombings). Threatened by destruction in the 1970s, the city was rescued by the Creusot-Montceau ecomuseum in 1978, then listed as a historical monument in 1980. Its rehabilitation in social housing (1982) and its management by the OPAC of Saône-et-Loire preserve this early testimony of paternalist industrial planning.

Architecturally, the five brick buildings and flat tiles adapt to the slope of the terrain. The units, accessible by opposite streets according to their level, incorporate square windows and annexes (storage, gardens). This hybrid model — between rural housing and worker concentration — announces the gradual abandonment of barracks in favour of family towns. The Combe des Mineurs illustrates the British influence on French industrialization and the evolution of labour housing policies in the 19th century.

Today, the city is protected for its pioneering character: the first creation of this type in Creusot, it combines construction economy, independence of housing (separate entrances) and proximity to agricultural activities. Its inscription in 1980 underlines its role in the social and architectural history of the Burgundy region, marked by the steel industry and the migration of skilled labour.

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