Why this ride
An 80 km round trip from Liévin - roughly 1 h 28 in the saddle. On the way it passes Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7, Terril 34 and back through Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin and Terril 34
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 80 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 28
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin
Number 1 bis at Liévin was one of the shafts of the old Compagnie des mines de Liévin, and its headframe still stands, a lean tower against a sky that is often low and grey. It is protected as part of the Mining Basin World Heritage Site, listed in 2012, together with the terrils, the cités and a hundred or so other elements across the old coalfield. What strikes you is how ordinary it looks, a plain frame in an urban setting, and yet it stands for generations of men who went down in cages and came back up with faces black with coal.
Read the complete Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin is where the day begins. Next is Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7.
2. Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7
Picture a pit village at six in the morning in 1950: men walking to the headframe with their lunch tins, the siren calling the shift, the women already up and stoking the stoves, children getting ready for the company school. The ensemble around Fosse n°7, near Maisnil-lès-Ruitz and Barlin, preserves the setting for that daily routine: the pit buildings, the housing, the paths between them, and the terril rising nearby. It was a self-contained world, owned and run by the mining company, which provided houses, coal for heating, schools, churches and even doctors, in exchange for loyalty and hard work. The site is one of the many components of the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin on the UNESCO list.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Terril 34.
3. Terril 34
A terril is a slag heap, a mountain of waste rock dumped beside a coal mine, and in the flat land of northern France these man-made hills are the closest thing to relief for miles around. Terril 34 is one of hundreds that dot the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, a UNESCO site since 2012, which recognises not only the heaps but also the pithead frames, miners' housing estates, schools, churches and railway lines that made up the landscape of coal mining in the region for nearly three centuries. This one sits near Norrent-Fontes and Lillers, at the western end of the basin, where it meets the chalk hills of Artois.
Read the complete Terril 34 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 40 km into the recorded legs you reach Terril 34. Next is back through Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7.
4. back through Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7, late in the day. Next is Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin.
5. Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin to Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7
Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin → Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 to Terril 34
Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 → Terril 34 is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Terril 34 to back through Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7
Terril 34 → back through Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 to Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin
back through Ensemble minier de la fosse n°7 → Chevalement du n°1 bis de Liévin is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.