Pyramides d'or noir: Football in the mining region of Lens

Words: Ronald Schut

Images: Ronald Schut

Just an hour’s drive from the French coast, travellers come face to face with a wonderful landscape.

Dozens of dark pyramids loom on the horizon. As a man-made landscape, the region celebrated its tenth anniversary as a world heritage site last year.

Welcome to the ‘bassin minier’, the northern French coal mining district with Lens as its undisputed capital.

The region is particularly attractive for non-League groundhoppers. The football landscape is made up with scenic grounds and amateur sides dating from the mining era.

Many club names and crests reveal their mining history: for instance Dynamo Fosse 4 (mine pit 4),

©Ronald Schut/ Terrace Edition. Fosse 9bis head frame at Oignies.

US Ouvrière (workers), AS Sainte-Barbe (named after the patron saint of the miners). In some names the origin of their founders can be read, such as US Ruch Carvin and AS Gwiazda Lens, which were founded by Polish miners who settled in the mining basin in the 1920s and 1930s.

Above all, the mining history is visible along the football fields, with its terrils (commonly known as slag heaps, although that term actually refers to iron ore residue). Monumental ‘chevalements’ (head frames) make an impressive backdrop to the local football pitches. Last but not least, many football pitches are surrounded by typical miners’ houses, known as ‘Corons’.

The town of Lens is also home of the legendary football team, the Racing Club de Lens. With their iconic Stade Bollaert-Delelis – which capacity outnumbers the town’s number of inhabitants – RC Lens are an immensely popular squad, with supporter groups nationwide.

The club has gone through good and bad times. After a number of difficult seasons, RC Lens fought their way back to the top

Last season, ‘Les Sang et Or’; (the blood and gold, as their nickname goes) surprisingly achieved the vice championship at one point behind Paris Saint-Germain, qualifying for the Champions League. All these years their home ground held one of the best attendances in France.

©Ronald Schut/ Terrace Edition. RC Lens Tribune Marek.

Last season all home games were sold out, including the pre-season friendlies.

Besides traditional dwellings, Les Corons is also the title of a chanson by singer Pierre Bachelet, describing a carefree childhood among the coal pyramids.

The song was adopted by RC Lens’ supporters, singing the words loudly at every home match before the start of the second half.

Anyone who plans to visit Stade Bollaert-Delelis would do well to learn the chorus in advance:

Au nord, c’étaient les corons

La terre c‘était le charbon

Le ciel c’était l’horizon

Les hommes des mineurs de fond

In the North there were the mining villages

The underground was made of coal

The sky was the horizon

The men, they were underground miners