Home / The thirty days / Wallonia and the Ardennes / The carbide lamps of a Hainaut pit
A brass lamp, wet timber, and a seam still open
Two hours underground with the men who worked it is what you reserve a carbide lamp pit day in Hainaut for
From $146 per person, half past nine until half past three, in Wallonia and the Ardennes. The run mark is two, needs four: two men who worked the seam are paid out of the day, and below four people it moves to another date rather than runs thin. Two of those hours are spent underground.
| Starts from | Blegny, Belgium |
|---|---|
| Hours | 09:30 to 15:30 |
| Runs when | needs four |
| One person pays | from $146 |
| Part of | Wallonia and the Ardennes |
Going down, and what the lamp does
Kit is issued at half past nine: helmet, belt, and a brass lamp charged with carbide grains and water at the bench, lit with a flint on the reflector. The way in is a walking drift rather than a cage, so you go down on your own feet at a steady slope for about ten minutes. Then roughly a kilometre and a half of gallery: timber props, an air door that must be closed behind you, and a face where the seam narrows to the height of a chair. The flame is not decoration; it stands tall in good air and shortens in bad, which is why it was carried. You are back at the lamp bench by half past two.
Cold, damp, and ceilings you stoop under
Two hours underground with no way out in between. It sits near twelve degrees, water drips steadily, and there are stretches of two or three hundred metres where a tall person walks bent. There are steps, there is coal dust, and the gallery is lit only by what you carry. It is not strenuous, but it is enclosed, and that is the part people underestimate. If small spaces frighten you, we will not reserve this day for you, and we will say so rather than let you find out four hundred metres in. We give no medical opinion of any kind; that is a question for your own doctor.
What the fee pays the former miners
From $146 per person. The figure holds six hours with two men who worked the seam before it closed, the lamp, helmet and belt, the underground hours and the surface buildings on the way out. It does not hold travel to the pit head, lunch, a bed, or anything bought afterwards. The two men are paid for the day out of it, which is the whole reason the mark is two: under four people the day does not pay them, so it moves rather than runs thin. The site bills you directly in its own name; this office takes no payment, keeps no card details, and is paid a commission by them afterwards.
Awkward things people ask about this day
- I do not like small spaces. Should I come?
- Probably not, and we will not reserve it for you if you tell us that. Two hours underground has no halfway exit, and the narrow stretches come well after the point where turning back is simple. Better to lose the day at the reserving stage than four hundred metres in with nine other people behind you. We give no medical view; ask your own doctor if it is a health question.
- Why does it need four people?
- Two former miners come in from their village to work the day and are paid out of the fee. Under four that does not add up, so the day is moved to a date where the numbers work rather than run with one man doing both jobs badly. You are told within a week of your date whether it stands as reserved.
- Is the seam real, or built for visitors?
- It is a worked seam in a pit that closed, kept timbered, drained and lit so that it can be walked. Some stretches were rebuilt for safety and the men will tell you exactly which, because they are prouder of the honest half than the tidy half. It is not a reconstruction, and the coal on your coat afterwards is coal.
The other five days near this one
Two days that look close on a map are not always joinable in one week, and the office will say so plainly instead of selling you the pair anyway.
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from $168 per person needs eight -
from $222 per person private only -
from $140 per person runs whatever the numbers -
from $118 per person needs four -
from $160 per person needs eight
Hold this day and add others to it
Booking a day here means the office holds your place with whoever runs that day on the ground, and their invoice reaches you directly once the dates stop moving.