Why this ride
154 km from Bully-les-Mines to Bully-les-Mines, about 2 h 33 of riding. It goes by way of Monument à Madame Declercq, Cité Barrois, Ancienne Fosse n°2 et mine-image and back through Cité Barrois.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Dispensaire Société de Secours Mutuel and Ancienne Fosse n°2 et mine-image
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 154 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 33
- 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. Dispensaire Société de Secours Mutuel
A dispensary may seem an odd thing to visit, but this is a monument to something remarkable. In the nineteenth century the coal companies of northern France built housing, schools, churches and clinics for their workers, partly out of paternalism and partly to keep a stable workforce, and the miners themselves set up mutual aid societies, the sociétés de secours mutuel, to pay for doctors, medicines and funerals. The dispensary at Bully-les-Mines belongs to that world of care and control, and it is one of the buildings that explain why UNESCO listed the whole mining basin in 2012. The brick architecture has a plain, solid dignity, and the sense of a community looking after its own is easy to feel.
Read the complete Dispensaire Société de Secours Mutuel write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Dispensaire Société de Secours Mutuel is where the day begins. Next is Monument à Madame Declercq.
2. Monument à Madame Declercq
Oignies is a small town in the Pas-de-Calais, at the edge of the old coal basin near the border with the Nord, with a monument at its heart to the people who lived and died by the pits.
Read the complete Monument à Madame Declercq write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Monument à Madame Declercq comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cité Barrois.
3. Cité Barrois
Rows of red-brick cottages, each with its garden, set along curving streets with trees: the Cité Barrois in Pecquencourt looks almost English, and that is no accident. In the later years of the coal era, the mining companies of northern France built garden cities for their workers, influenced by ideas from across the Channel about healthy housing and green space. This one is part of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Mining Basin, listed by UNESCO in 2012 as an entire landscape of pits, slag heaps, workers' housing, schools, churches and railways spread over more than a hundred kilometres.
Read the complete Cité Barrois write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 49 km into the recorded legs you reach Cité Barrois. Next is Ancienne Fosse n°2 et mine-image.
4. Ancienne Fosse n°2 et mine-image
Oignies holds a special place in the history of northern France: it is where coal mining in the Pas-de-Calais began and where it ended. In 1842, coal was found here during a search for water on the estate of a local landowner, Henriette de Clercq, starting a rush that transformed the region. And on 21 December 1990, the last tonne of coal in the Nord-Pas de Calais basin was brought up from the 9-9bis pit in Oignies, ending more than two and a half centuries of mining in the region. The old Fosse n°2 and its mine-image, a training gallery where young miners learned their trade above ground, are part of the World Heritage site.
Read the complete Ancienne Fosse n°2 et mine-image write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ancienne Fosse n°2 et mine-image, about halfway. Next is back through Cité Barrois.
5. back through Cité Barrois
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cité Barrois write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cité Barrois sits at 98 km, about halfway. Next is back through Monument à Madame Declercq.
6. back through Monument à Madame Declercq
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monument à Madame Declercq write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Monument à Madame Declercq comes up about 130 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dispensaire Société de Secours Mutuel.
7. Dispensaire Société de Secours Mutuel
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dispensaire Société de Secours Mutuel write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Dispensaire Société de Secours Mutuel closes the day.
Leg by leg
Dispensaire Société de Secours Mutuel to Monument à Madame Declercq
Dispensaire Société de Secours Mutuel → Monument à Madame Declercq is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monument à Madame Declercq to Cité Barrois
Monument à Madame Declercq → Cité Barrois is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cité Barrois to Ancienne Fosse n°2 et mine-image
Cité Barrois → Ancienne Fosse n°2 et mine-image is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ancienne Fosse n°2 et mine-image to back through Cité Barrois
Ancienne Fosse n°2 et mine-image → back through Cité Barrois is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cité Barrois to back through Monument à Madame Declercq
back through Cité Barrois → back through Monument à Madame Declercq is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monument à Madame Declercq to Dispensaire Société de Secours Mutuel
back through Monument à Madame Declercq → Dispensaire Société de Secours Mutuel is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.