The "HFX" Saga
Cast your mind back to May 2015. While I was still following the Euro tourbus trail, like many other explorers at the time we had stopped off at the location often called "Bureau Central", which was the administrative offices of the Wendel family. The family were big players in the steel industry in France, and happened to have built a rather large steel works next to their offices, which dominated the towns of Florange and Hayange. Anyone visiting the old, grand office block surely couldn't miss the huge steel works. We considered heading in, but were unsure about the status of the place and frankly, we were a bit sceptical about it.
Fast forward a few years. bullullarrrrrbbzzzzzzzwwwwaarrrbbbb. That's my best fast forward sound effect, so you get the picture now. We were in the area, I think we may have been visiting Richemont power station, or something like that, and happened across the steel works once again. This time around, my interest was much more piqued. By then I'd had enough of the tourist trail and was venturing off on my own. We had a drive around the perimeter of the expansive site and noted a few potential access points. We had another quick look at the old offices, and had a go at squeezing through a little gap in the fence. I knew I wasn't going to fit, but sometimes you do things anyway. Well, I do. Shortly after, a security van pulled up along the inside of the fence and the guy attempted to have a quick chat with us. We can't speak a word of French and the security guy spoke even less English, but did a pretty good mimed impression of me trying to squeeze through the fence. Thanks for the intel, Mr Frog, although we couldn't see them we now knew they had cameras covering that area. Handy!
Sneaky sneaky!
Buzzzzzwubbblllaaaaarb. Yup, I've wound the tape on again, it's now June 2017 and @SpiderMonkey and I were graced with the company of @extreme_ironing whilst visiting some more power stations. One happened to be not too far away from Florange, so I'd already made the steel works a target for the trip. The power stations were overnight jobbies, so bright and early one morning, feeling pretty tired, we raced to what appeared to be a pretty promising access point at the steel works and found our way in pretty easily. The day was surprisingly chilled, but fatigue set in before we got around the whole place.
A few weeks later, I was back in the vicinity, this time with @darbians, so we headed back to finish the job. I'm glad we did, as we got to see the old power station / blower house which was out of the scope of my first visit. I know one or two people had previously tried to access the steel works, with varying degrees of success. It didn't take a great deal of effort in the end, although far from the walk-ins many euro-explorers have become accustomed to. But still, it's an all too common occurrence in Euroland that massive places like this don't get any umbex attention for ages. It's almost like the so called "explorers" need someone else to do the actual exploring and post it online before they go. Up until this point, I'd played along and code-named European locations, mainly to keep the Euro lot happy. But, as always happens, everyone rushed to the newly found location, the code-name was just pointless, and security at the site was tightened up. This was an exercise that changed my mind on code-naming European locations - why should I play their game to keep them happy when I'm over there finding new locations for them?! All European locations I've found since then have had the same philosophy applied as the UK locations get - because that way it's not silly and actually means something to Joe Public reading it. Anyway, we got dirty, took pics, had fun and posted it online!
The blast furnaces and steelworks while they were in use
History
The late nineteenth century saw rapid developments in the production of iron. Areas with an abundance of iron ore benefited from the expanding industry and large plants were constructed. The blast furnaces and steel works in Florange is one such example, with massive expansion taking place in the early twentieth century. The first blast furnaces were built at the site in 1906, and later a huge steel works to convert the iron into steel.
In total, six blast furnaces were built at the site. During the 1970s three of the six blast furnaces were refurbished, and their capacities increased. The other three furnaces were decommissioned and later demolished.
One of the oldest remaining parts of the site is a huge hall with 1919 emblazoned above the main entrance, which now contains a set of turbo-blowers for injecting high-pressure air into the blast furnaces. The hall would have originally contained an array of classic industrial machinery including mechanical blowers and alternators similar to those found at Power Plant X in Luxembourg. Electricity generation on the site ceased in the 1950s when Richemont Power Station took over, running on the blast furnace gasses produced by a number of steel works in the region.
Production of iron and steel ceased in 2012 when the last remaining blast furnaces at the site were mothballed. It was announced the two blast furnaces would be maintained so they could be restarted if market conditions improved in the future, but were permanently shut down the following year.
Now, the steel works and blast furnaces lay dormant, slowly rusting and being reclaimed by nature. Wagons stand still in the rail yard surrounded by overgrowth, the steel works silent and the furnaces lifeless.
Bureau Central
Let's start off where it all started off. The Bureau Central, the main offices of the Wendel empire.
Have a look at Dweeb's excellent De Wendel Steel Works Offices report for a bit more of a write-up and some rather cracking pics. His report reminded me about this place and inspired me to finally put together this all-encompassing report.
Exterior of the old office building. Not bad, eh?
The interior has seen better days
Many rooms and corridors had glass blocks in the ceiling to let natural light through to lower floors
The Blast Furnaces
Workers at the blast furnaces, pictured in 1952
Blast Furnaces viewed from the rail yard
Coal wagons lined up below the blast furnaces
Base of one of the blast furnaces
Inside a blast furnace building
Inside another blast furnace building
Spiral staircase
Exterior with the water tower in the distance
View up a blast furnace
Wagons under a blast furnace
The blast furnace control room had been modernised
Continued...
Workers at the blast furnaces, pictured in 1952
Blast Furnaces viewed from the rail yard
Coal wagons lined up below the blast furnaces
Base of one of the blast furnaces
Inside a blast furnace building
Inside another blast furnace building
Spiral staircase
Exterior with the water tower in the distance
View up a blast furnace
Wagons under a blast furnace
The blast furnace control room had been modernised
Continued...
