Steel-Ice: 2023

Friday, December 1, 2023

Annals of transportation (10) ..... Beziers and the Canal du Midi

Built for eternity....

The scene at the lock in Bezier is so stereotype French as can possibly be. High plane trees overshadow a gravel yard where a group of men plays petanque. Another gray haired group watches the game from the park benches in the shade. The operator sits in the control chamber of the lock and plays with his smartphone while waiting for customers. Across the quiet street another group nips at their pastis. Thereafter a little basin is full of canal boats. Their crews relax from the heat and exchange their travel adventures. The lock at the other end of the basin is busy. A line of vessels is waiting to be let down to the level of the little port. Men at the helm, women handling ropes under their critical supervision.

Pleasure boat entering the lock d'Orb

The ambitions of the French king Louis XIV (1638-1715) were unbounded. The Roi Soleil led France to unprecedented heights. Manufacturing increased so one project concerned the improvement of the transport conditions. Since roads were miserable and slow, the water ways were used when possible. Louis first minister at the time was Jean-Baptiste Colbert. Colbert authorized the construction of a canal connecting the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

Works started in 1666. Eventually a 240 km long canal was finished by 1681. It starts close to Toulouse, where the navigable natural waterways end, climbed for 52 km for 57.18 meters to a summit at an altitude of 189 m and from there gradually decreased to sea level at the coastal etangs for another 188 km. Generally a depth of 2 m and surface width of 20 m was planned. It is one of the oldest and the longest canals in Europe still in operation.

Plan of Beziers with the Canal du Midi and the Orb bypass at the bottom

In the beginning, Pierre-Paul Riquet, Baron of Bonrepos was the chief engineer overseeing planning and construction of the canal. Riquet died in 1680 at the for that time respectable age of 71 and the king’s engineer La Feuille took over. He did not see the completion of his project.

Bridle path along the canal

For 15 years nearly 12000 workers were employed for the construction of the canal. It was officially opened in May 1681, but commercial operations only started in May 1683. In 1686 Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, Seigneur de Vauban, later Marquis de Vauban, or simply Vauban, generally considered the greatest engineer of his time, took over. He reconsidered the construction of the canal and remedied many shortcomings.

The lock staircase of Fonserannes

One of the problems encountered was the descent into the valley of the river Orb at Beziers. It was mastered by a staircase of 8 interconnected locks. Riquet planned oval locks which were 30.5 long, 6 m wide at the gates and 11 m wide in the middle. This design used the strength of the arch against the inward pressure of the surrounding soil and was based on earlier Romans retaining walls. The use of interconnected locks saves doors and foundations in areas with great gradients.

The locks were hacked out of the bedrock of a hillside with varying gradient. Locks with slightly different individual shape contain the same volume of water. This amazing piece of engineering was built mainly by women under the supervision of two illiterate brothers, the Medhailes.

One of the locks of Fonserannes

Originally the locks led the ships down to the river Orb at Beziers. After crossing the river, the boats had to be lifted up to the level of the canal again a bit downriver. Therefore the traffic on the canal in this section was depending on the water level of the river. Flooding caused the canal to be closed.

The locks d'Orb and Beziers

In 1854, M. Magues, the Chief Engineer of the Canal Company, proposed the construction of a new bypass which leaves the original canal at the second lowest chamber of the Fonserannes lock, crosses the river Orb and rejoins the original course of the Canal du Midi by way of two new locks, the Orb Lock and the Béziers Lock. Between the locks is a basin which is used as a port. Construction was completed by May 1856. The new aqueduct is the longest on the Canal du Midi. It is 28 metres wide, 12 metres tall and 240 metres long.

The aqueduct

The new bypass did not completely make the lowest part of the Fonserannes lock giving access to the Orb indispensable. At the mouth of the old canal, separated from the river with yet another lock, the harbor of Beziers, Porte Notre Dame was still used. Beziers was an important production center for alcohol and wine. Warehouses were built along the canal. Many of these historic buildings are still standing today. Most are in ruins. Little enterprises are housed in those still usable. However, the city of Beziers is aware of the historic character of these buildings and a restoration is planned.

Old warehouses at the mouth of the canal du Midi towards river Orb. The oval shape of the lock is clearly visible

After watching the activity at the second, the Beziers lock, I walk towards the interconnected locks at Fonserannes. First the later bypass crosses the Orb on the aqueduct. It was a long dry summer and the level of water in the Orb is low. The bridle paths on both sides of the canal are well shaded by tall trees and a poplar trail for both walkers and cyclists. After a short distance I reach the area around the interconnected locks.

Originally the boats for the transport of goods on the canal were twenty metres long and hauled by horses or men. The tonnage of vessels increased over the centuries from 60 tonnes to 120 tonnes. In 1778 there were about 250 barges, in 1914, there were 126 "owned boats", 70 rented boats, 300 horses, and 75 mules. In 1980 there were only two barges (the Bacchus, a wine carrier and the Espérance, a grain carrier) for regular freight traffic between Toulouse and Sète. In 1989 even this remaining traffic had to cease after the canal was closed as a consequence of drought.

Soon the unproductive canal was seen as a space for development for the car lobby. In Toulouse, they proposed to built an urban express way on the bed of the canal. Fortunately, the mayor of Toulouse, Pierre Baudis, saw the historic value of the canal as a whole and blocked these plans. So it stayed open for navigation. In 1996 the channel and a buffer zone of 2,000 km2 were included in the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

The UNESCO monument state has made available money for the renovation of the area around the historic locks. A visitor center has been built and the area around the old locks and the canal has been turned into a park. A new bridge with elevator for the handicapped gives access to the upper part of the park. Behind that I discover a concrete trough with rusty white blue colossus of a vehicle. It rests on enormous tires. The windows are broken. The whole area is fenced off. Apparently they do not want visitors to this part of the canal, but I am curious and find a gap in the fence.

Concrete trough of the modern ship lift

Transporting a ship through the Fonserannes locks stairway takes around 30 min downwards or 45 min. In addition, the size of the locks limits commercial shipping. In 1980 the construction of an inclined elevator began. It was inaugurated in 1983. It took 10 min to lift a vehicle of up to 350 tons floating on a wedge shaped body of water along the concrete channel with an incline of 5% and a height difference of 13.6 m.

The electrically powered lifting vehicle rests on gas-filled rubber tires running on concrete tracks on both sides of the channel. However, as a result of oil leaking from the hydraulic system of the lifting vehicle the system had to be shut down again in 1984. The oil that got onto the concrete pavement led to reduced friction. After revision the system went into operation a second time in 1987. In the first season it worked an average of five days out of seven, but in the following this decreased to four out of seven days and in 1989 to three out of seven days. Frequent shutdowns were needed for maintenance. In 1990 the lift was in operation for only 68 days, in 1995 only for two days. The last ship was transported in 1999 and the plant was shut down on April 11, 2001.

The tractor moving the water container for lifting the ships

The ship lift is neglected. Windows are broken. Weeds grow in the concrete. In the evening light it is a photographers dream. Suddenly I hear shouts. A guy in blue working outfit comes down the concrete incline and throws his fist and french curses at me. I retreat behind the gap in the fence and wait for him. His head is red from anger and he furiously rattles at the gate. I don’t know what his problem is and take the manicured tourists’ path to the old locks which still operate after 350 years.

Today the canal is an attraction and is extensively used by pleasure boats. Navigation of the channel is open from the third Saturday in March to the first week of November. Otherwise it can be used on request. The winter "period of unemployment" allows the completion of maintenance works.

I follow the old canal down to the river Orb. A number of arched bridges for road and railway cross the river, all of them an attraction on their. The skyline of the old town of Beziers with its cathedral on top of a rock above the crooked houses reflects in the calm water of the river. I cross the river on the oldest bridge which has been closed for motorized traffic and allows a peaceful access to the steep streets of the old town. There a completely different chapter of history was written.

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Annals of the dead (8) .... The dying cemetery

In the middle ages rich people were buried in the floor of churches and the others in surrounding cemeteries in the city. In Delft, national hero William of Orange was buried in a crypt of the Nieuwe Kerk in 1584. Since then, this cellar has served as the final resting place for members of the Dutch royal family.

The nieuwe kerk in Delft, the site of the graves of the Dutch Royal family. It can be assumed that the lawn around the church accommodated the graves of the less affluent

However, on August 22, 1827 King William I decided that places with more than a thousand inhabitants should build a cemetery outside the built-up areas for hygienic reasons. Consequently, Delft established a first municipal cemetery in what is now "Kalverbos". When this cemetery became full in 1869, the Jaffa cemetery in the Wippolder was put into use. In 1969 followed a new cemetery in De Iepenhof. Delft also has a small Jewish cemetery on Vondelstraat/Geertruyt van Oostenstraat.

The remainder of the Kalverbos cemetery and the grave of the "dauphine"

The Kalverbos cemetery still contains the grave of Naundorff'. He contended to be the son, the dauphin, of the French king Louis XVI who was executed in the French revolution. Meanwhile it is know that he was not Louis' son.

The law of 1827 allowed private individuals to build their own cemetery. The Roman Catholic churches make use of this and in 1829 the Roman Catholic cemetery at the Kanaalweg was established on the site of a former country estate. The cemetery is located on the Kanaalweg south of the Rijn-Schiekanaal, The land that was purchased, consists of: "vegetable garden and orchard, forest and pond, a driveway with large square planted with oaks and elms, an octagonal garden house, gardener's house and shed. No special new landscaping was realized for the cemetery since the driveway and garden landscaping was retained.

In 1860 the garden house was replaced by a chapel. In the 1960 ies the City of Delft wanted to construct a new bridge for unlimited vehicle access across the Rijn-Schie Canal, the Sebastiaansbrug. The Roman Catholic church had to sell the cemetery to the city of Delft. The part where the bridge was to be built, approximately 1900 m2, had to be cleared. The choir of the neo-Gothic chapel, built in 1869, fell victim to the construction of the bridge. Afterwards the structure of the remaining church was so poor that it was torn down in 1974

496 graves with an average of three bodies per grave were relocated from the area to be cleared to a nrew western part of the cemetery. Others were transferred to the new Iepenhof cemetery. No new graves have been issued since 1969. Only in existing private (family) graves interments can still carried out.

Although the graves of the old eastern part are overgrown, the layout in this part of the cemetery can still be traced back to the map of the cemetery as it was drawn by the municipality of Delft from 1870. This part of the cemetery includes a priest's grave, a fenced plot containing the graves of Augustin nuns and graves of professors of the Technical University, some of which are surrounded through a wrought iron fences.

The bar house was designed in 1861 by P.J. Schouten. Remarkable is a cast iron crucifix with the tombstone for Mgr. J.T. of Brussels († 1871) at the foot. There is also a striking yellow staff house from the 19th century still existing.

Remarkable are the grave markers for Prof. Ch.M. Schols († 1897; design A. Ballieux), the burial vault with cross for P. Kok († 1875) and the cross with bronze portrait reliefs for H. Swarttouw († 1923).

Fortunately the municipality ultimately did not decide to close the cemetery. After you have passed the messy surroundings of residential blocks from the 1970s and parking lots and you have found the button for opening the high entrrance gate, it opens with a creaking sound and you arrive in another world. Immediately you are separated from the noise and hectic life outside the cemetery. The cemetery gives the impression of one silent and forgotten piece.

High trees surround the plot and helping damping the sound of the traffic rushing over the bridge which so much disturbed the peace of those who found their last rest here.

The greenery is unkempt and the overgrow starts to hide the old graves. Many of the grave plates are broken, the standing stones toppled, bronze letters of inscriptions are missing. The bones of the dead under the broken covers feed the grow of trees and scrubs. Now in fall, their colored leaves in turn cover the graves.

None of the numerous tourists to Delft discover this cemetery. There are still occasional burials in family graves. Sometimes a fan puts fresh flowers on the grave of the Bauer family, known for the singer Frans Bauer. It is to hope that the City of Delft maintains this spot of piece so close to the walls of the old city in this morbid, dilapidated state.

Source:

file:///C:/Users/schmy/Downloads/adoc.pub_gemeente-delft-ko-p-ie-ofct-i-akr-2010.pdf

https://www.begraafplaatsdelft.nl/rooms-katholieke-begraafplaats-kanaalweg

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Annals of industrial archeology (2).... brickworks

Natural stone is rare and expensive in the Netherlands. On the other hand plenty of clay is available along the many arms in the river delta of Rhine, Maas and Schelde. Therefore traditionally Dutch houses are built from brick. Nut also castles, fortresses, bridges and factories were built from bricks. Consequently numerous brickworks popped up in places along the shores of the rivers where suitable deposits of clay were available. The coal necessary for burning the bricks could be brought in and the products shipped out on barges. In the little village of Druten alone there were 13 brickworks.

The Waal floodplains near Nijmegen. In the background the chimney of a former brickworks

Modern brickworks and concrete factories have taken over from the traditional coal fired plants. Few survive today as museum, and even less in working order. One is the Vogelensangh brickworks in Deest. This factory was built in 1918-1919 and bricks are still baked in much the same way as 100 years ago. The factory consists of a press building and a coal-fired ring oven, the cream of the crop at the time.

The rectangular ringoven in Vogelensangh

While the clay for the bricks formerly was dug from the nearby fields and dumped on the clay mound to let it "rot" for several months it is now delivered by truck. It is not scraped off by hand and transported in wheelbarrows to the press building but a excavator puts it on a conveyer belt. There it is mixed in a clay mill powered by electricity instead of a steam engine. The mixed clay then is put into the mold containers. The employees adjust the size of the mold to be able to make custom-made stones for every project.

Narrow gauge Jung Diesel engine with trucks

After shaping in the molds the stones are taken to the drying room to dry for at least 6 days at a temperature of 50 to 75 degrees. The hot air used for drying is supplied from the ring oven. The drying room replaced the original huts, where it took weeks to dry the raw material by wind.

The pipe bringing hot air from the ringoven to the drying shed

end of the ringoven

The bricks are baked in the only coal-fired ring kiln left in the Netherlands. Pallets of bricks are wheeled into the coolest of the 20 gates. The fire wanders from chamber to chamber in the ring kiln in ten days where the bricks are fired at a temperature of about 1060 degrees Celsius. To achieve that temperature the stokers throw coal into the oven through the stoke holes day and night.

Inside an oven chamber ready to be filled with raw bricks

After cooling the bricks can be removed from the kiln. The bricks are now manually sorted by color to create a unique selection for each project. Stones that were closer to the fire are bluer and stones that were less close to the fire are red in color.

Door to the open chamber of the ringoven

Sealed oven chamber

When you cycle along the many arms of the Rhine Maas Schelde river delta you come across the remains of bricks works which did not survive. Strangely enough the most delicate part of the structure, the chimney, seems to survive the longest. Sometimes more of the buildings survive to be used for other purposes.

Abandoned brickworks at Druten

Of course bricks still have to be produced by modern plants. Only the chimney and the pallets of bricks give away the purpose of the character less modern buildings.

Leftover chimney of brickworks at Rossum

One of the structures that survives as a museum is de panoven nor far from Zevenaar. From 1850 to 1983, bricks were baked here using traditional methods. The round zigzag oven and the drying shed âre National Monuments List. With two other drying sheds turned into group accommodation and three restored drying sheds the brick factory is still completely intact and is maintained with great passion..