Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Combes well, located in La Ricamarie in the Ondaine Valley, was built in the early 1950s by the Freyssinet-Limousin Concrete Society. It is one of the few accounts of coal mining in the Loire coalfield. Its chivalry, atypical by the absence of pushers, rests on a prestressed concrete structure with a summital swelling compensating the forces exerted by the cables. This system, innovative for the time, replaces a fortune device installed in the 1930s.

Originally, the site was a burrow (underground well without surface opening), dug in 1934 to store embankments at 23 metres depth. Transformed into a well in 1935, it was deepened to -496 metres between 1937 and 1950. The present straddling, completed in 1950, marks the culmination of this evolution, incorporating a 1,500 horsepower extraction machine and modern slaughter methods. At its peak around 1960, the well extracted up to 1,200 tons of coal per day, transported via a 1.2 km conveyor to the Pigeot well washhouse.

Between 1972 and 1983, the Combes well was used solely for exhaure (water pumping) to protect the Pigeot well. Its geographical isolation, at the top of a hill, and its original design (a silo transformed into a well) explain its preservation after the cessation of mining activity. Ranked a historic monument in 2003, it includes horse riding and surface buildings, now owned by the municipality. Its architecture, combining functionality and technical innovation, makes it a symbol of the Stéphanois industrial heritage.

The horsemanship of the Combes is distinguished by its profile in turn, without the traditional oblique leggings. Stability is ensured by a concrete swell at the top, supporting the rollers, and by the homogeneity of the structure. This design, which is representative of the second generation of concrete horse ridings that appeared in the 1930s, illustrates the adaptation of mining techniques to the geological and economic constraints of the post-war period. The site, though modest in size, was the first well to extract from the basin in the 1960s.

The production of the well was based on high-capacity sedans and an automated system: the cars were emptied by electric pushers in a hopper, and then the coal was transported by conveyor to the screen. This advanced mechanization contrasted with the artisanal methods still in use in other wells in the region. After its closure, the well escaped destruction thanks to its isolated location, becoming a marker of the Loire industrial landscape.

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