Mining colonies in South Limburg: company housing

Some twenty-five years after the closure of the last mine in South-Limburg several former mining colonies were restored and listed with monumental status. The Dutch State Service for Archaeology, Cultural Landscapes and Monuments (Rijksdienst voor Archeologie, Cultuurlandschap en Monumenten or RACM) has listed almost all of the former mining colonies still in existence. In some cases the buildings and all the related structures, including for instance sheds, hedges and garden gates are listed and thus protected. In other cases a conservation area has been outlined with the cityscape protected from changes in character.

As industrialisation in South-Limburg was late to take off compared to neighbouring Belgium and Germany, the first phase of rampant piecemeal urbanisation was bypassed. The growth in employment in the local industrial sector (mainly mining) grew rapidly from 1.149 employees in 1900 via 37.645 employees in 1930 to 47.554 employees in 1950. Mining companies were more or less forced to provide housing to attract enough workers. This however didn't mean that supply kept up with demand, so there was a lot of overcrowding and many people converted shed and rooms into "housing". The hilly landscape with little more than dirt roads for communications meant that miners had to be housed near their work place. So with every new pit a new provision for more housing had to be made.  

The first mines were exploited by Germans from neighbouring Aix-la-Chapelle or Belgians from nearby Wallonia; so these first mining colonies have a distinct foreign flavour, much like Le Projet de Place Dor in Budel. There is a clear difference in approach between the early colonies built between 1900 and 1913 and the second wave built between 1913 and 1950. After WW2 no new colonies were developed, except for the completion of older estates, instead the empty spaces within the urbanised landscape were diligently filled in with planned housing estates, either in a traditionalist idiom or in a modern CIAM-inspired manner.

The first wave of mining colonies were mathematical setups dominated by Mulhouse  Quadrangles inserted in the pre-existing spatial pattern. In South-Limburg these Mulhouse Quadrangles are also known as Lorraine Blocks (Lotharingse Blokken) after the Belgian origins of the owner of the private Orange-Nassau Mines (Oranje-Nassau Mijnen) Henri Sarolea. The Colony Beersdal (1912) for the mine Orange-Nassau I (ON1) is the largest example; others include: Colony Grasbroek (1899-1904 for ON1) and the Colonies Leenhof I, II, III and IV (built between 1906 and 1913 for ON2). The Colony Vrank* (1900 - ON1) consisted of long rows of low houses along parallel streets. The Colony Rennemig (1914 - ON3) consists of 3 short streets with large semidetached houses on the side of a small river valley.  The first miners colony built by the private mining companies was the Kolonie Morgenster* (=Colony Morning Star) of 1899 built for Orange-Nassau I.

Housing provisions by the oldest mine, the Domanial Mine, can't be traced back. It seems to have been rather unplanned in and around pre-existing settlements. Small-scale planned housing is provided by the company when other mining concessions are incorporated. Not far from the Zeche Bärenbusch a row of mining cottages were built at the Colony Vink*. At some distance south of the main colliery of the Domanial Mines another housing group Colony Kokele* was built along two parallel streets. These weren't Mulhouse Quadrangles however. Further north, along the edge of the colliery site some houses for overseers and engineers with a large hostel for single miners were built along the Laurastraat in 1901 by Laura & Vereeniging (the Laura & Associates Mining Company).

Housing was also provided for the State Mines. The earliest examples can be found in Hoensbroek with the Woongroep Butting (1909) and Woongroep Kasteel (1911) for the State Mine Emma and in Kerkrade Kolonie Terwinselen I (1903) and II (1905-6) for State Mine Wilhelmina. Of these the Woongroep Butting and Terwinselen I* comprises of Mulhouse Quadragles. Butting also has a large Hostel. The other colonies consist of large semidetached family houses with rooms for lodgers (Terwinselen II) or small terraced housing (Kasteel).

The private mines of South Limburg are located in Kerkrade (Domanial Mine - D, Nulland Colliery - N, Beerenbosch Colliery - B, Laura & Vereeniging - LV, Julia - J and Willem-Sofia - WS), in Heerlen including Heerlerheide (Orange-Nassau I - ON1, Orange-Nassau III - ON3 and Orange-Nassau VI - ON4) and in Landgraaf (Orange-Nassau II - ON2). The State Mines are located on the border between Landgraaf and Kerkrade (State Mine Wilhelmina - S-W), in Hoensbroek (State Mine Emma - S-E) and in Brunssum (State Mine Hendrik - S-H).The mines comprised of several pits and were linked by railways (in green).The purpose-built mining colonies are mostly located around the ON1 Mine: Morgenster (1), Grasbroek (2), Vrank (3), Beersdal (4) and Rennemig (5). Butting (6) is located near State Mine Emma. Leenhof I and II (7), Leenhof III (8) and Leenhof IV (9) are built in succession at some distance of Orange-Nassau II. Terwinselen I and II (10), Laurastraat (11) and Vink (12) are all comparable to examples from Essen and consist of housing in a strip. Colony Kokele (13) was similar but extends between two parallel streets connected with a side street.  

The architecture of these early mining colonies is clearly based on German examples, mainly from Essen. This is logical al the action directors of this mining company were two German brothers named Carl and Friedrich Honigmann. They also had the single-storey white houses of the Colony Musschemig (1904-06, indicated by m on the map) erected. These pre-empt later developments along the lines of Garden City Movement ideals. The mining colony directly adjacent to Leenhof IV show the housing typical of this second type. This Colony Schaesberg takes inspiration from garden city examples as a way to house workers in socially rented housing.

 All colonies no longer in existence have been indicated by *.