Last modified: 2021-01-14 by ivan sache
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![[Flag]](../images/f/fr-62-mr.gif)
Flag of Marles-les-Mines - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 16 July 2020
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The municipality of Marles-les-Mines (5,561 inhabitants in 2018; 455 ha) is located 16 km south-west of Béthune.
Marles was elevated in 1621 to a county during the Spanish rule, confirmed by Louis XIV to the Beaulaincourt, erected Counts of Marles in 1752.
Coal deposits were first detected in Marles in 1852. The first shaft, of 4.5 m in diameter, was inaugurated the next year, when reaching a depth of 55 m, it was flooded by underground water and had to be filled. A new drilling was performed a bit further in 1854, which caved down under the underground river; the headframe and all machinery were lost in a crater of 30 m in diameter. There was, fortunately, no human loss.
The Old 2 shaft was drilled 50 m further and remained operated until 1974, producing 48 million ton coal.
[André de Marles blog, 10 April 2011]
Ivan Sache, 6 August 2020
The flag of Marles-les-Mines (photo, photo) is white with the municipal logo.
The logo features a coal mine headframe, which does not appear to be very original due to the history of the municipality and its location in the coal-mining district.
However, most headframes were suppressed in the aftermath of the end of coal extraction in the last quarter of the 20th century.
The Old 2 headframe in Marles-les-Mines (photo) is the only headframe kept in the Béthune-Bruay mining district; it is among the 21 surviving headframes part of the 353 elements of the North coal-mining district inscribed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 2012.
The Old 2 headframe, of 19.70 m in height, and its extraction machine served pit No. 2, composed of shafts No. 2, 2bis and 2ter. Acquired by the municipality of Marles in 1979, the headframe and the extraction machine were renovated in 1989 and inaugurated on 9 June 1991.
[Municipal website]
Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 8 August 2020