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Anderlues (Municipality, Province of Hainaut, Belgium)

Municipal flag of Anderlues - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 14 April 2005

Presentation of Anderlues
Municipal flag of Anderlues

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Presentation of Anderlues

The municipality of Anderlues (11,651 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 1,703 ha) is located c. 15 km west of Charleroi, on the road to Mons, in the former coal-mining basin of Charleroi.

In 1857, the Société du Bois de la Haye was founded in Béthune (north of France) in order to extract coal in Anderlues. The company dug in 1858 shafts #1 and #2, aka Vieille fosse (Old pit). The Société Charbonnière du Midi d'Anderlues was founded in Arras (north of France) in 1860, with the same goal. The two companies merged in 1867 to form the S.A. des Houillères d'Anderlues, with a 1,039 ha concession.
In 1868, shaft #3 (Aulniats) was dug; shaft #5 (Ansuelle) was dug in 1894. The company purchased 430 ha from the S.A. de Carnières-Sud et Viernoy; its concession spread on the underground of the municipalities of Anderlues, Leval, Epinois, Buvrinnes, Mont-Sainte-Geneviève, Lobbes, Piéton and Carnières, with more than 2,000 ha. In 1890, the company took over shaft Gendebien, labelled #4.
On 11 March 1892, a firedamp explosion killed 160 miners in shaft Aulniats. The shaft was totally revamped in 1906. The company produced then 320,000 tons of coal.
The last shaft in activity in Anderlues, shaft #6, was closed in 1969.
The coal extracted in Anderlues was used in the cokeworks owned by the Cokeries et Houillères d'Anderlues. The first coke ovens were erected in 1904; they were replaced by new ones in 1931. Until recently, the Anderlues cokeworks was one of the smallest and oldest coke by-product plants still operating in Belgium. The plant was closed in November 2002 and pulled down.

Source: Coal-mining in Hainaut website

Ivan Sache, 14 April 2005

Municipal flag of Anderlues

The municipal flag of Anderlues, as shown in Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones, is red with a white chevron placed horizontally and pointing to the flag hoist. It was adopted by the Municipal Council on 6 November 1991 and confirmed by the Executive of the French Community on 8 December 1992.

The flag is a banner of the municipal arms, which are "Gules a chevron argent". On the flag, the chevron is switched horizontally to the hoist. The municipal arms recall the arms of the former lords of Herzelles, coloured with the traditional colours of Anderlues.

Former flag of Anderlues - Image by Ivan Sache, 14 April 2005

Until 1992, the town of Anderlues probably used a vertically divided red-white flag.

Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 14 April 2005