Loos-en-Gohelle is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the

Pas-de-Calais Pas-de-Calais (, " strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments ...

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

in the

Hauts-de-France Hauts-de-France (; pcd, Heuts-d'Franche; , also ''Upper France'') is the northernmost Regions of France, region of France, created by the territorial reform of French regions in 2014, from a merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy. Its Prefectu ...

region of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Geography

A former

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

town, three miles northwest of the centre of Lens, at the junction of the D943 and the

A21 autoroute The A21 autoroute is a toll free highway in north western France it is also known as the ''Rocade Minière''. It is long. Junctions Completed In construction Upgrade of N455 between Flers-en-Escrebieux and Pecquencourt which is the northe ...

. Its nearest neighbours are

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements''), ...

to the south, Grenay to the west,

Hulluch Hulluch () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography An ex-coalmining town, now a farming commune, situated some north of Lens, at the junction of the D947 and the D39 roads. History The ...

to the northeast and Bénifontaine to the east. The two largest (184 m & 182 m)

spoil heap A spoil tip (also called a boney pile, culm bank, gob pile, waste tip or bing) is a pile built of accumulated ''spoil'' – waste material removed during mining. These waste materials are typically composed of shale, as well as smaller quan ...

s in Europe are found here. Terril 62Loos

History

The place was first documented in 1071, as "Lohes". The name has changed considerably over the years: Lothae, Lo, Lohes, Loes, Loez and Loos. It was not until 1791 that the name of "Loos" was officially sanctioned. According to some, the name comes from the Germanic "Lôh" and Dutch "Loo" which mean "wood", but there is no archaeological evidence of what could have been a forest. According to others, the name derives from the Germanic "Laupo" which means marshy meadows, which, given the topography of the town, tends to support this theory. In 1937, after much confusion with Loos-lez-Lille (today Loos), it was decided to add the region's name (Gohelle) to that of the commune. The oldest documents that specify the existence of Loos date from the eleventh century, at the time of construction of the abbey of Anchin. But with the foundation of a church dedicated to Saint Vaast, it suggests that the village existed long before (St. Vaast lived in the 6th century).
By the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, Loos-en-Gohelle was a large village whose inhabitants lived mainly by farming: in 1569, 350 inhabitants, in 1759, 600 people ; In 1824, 700 inhabitants and in 1850 around 800 people. It was around 1850 that the town started to become prosperous; farmers could fertilize previously uncultivated land, thanks to technology provided by Guislain Decrombecque and the discovery of coal resulted in a very rapid increase of population. Many monuments and cemeteries reflect the destruction during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

which completely destroyed the town, particularly during the

Battle of Loos The Battle of Loos took place from 1915 in France on the Western Front, during the First World War. It was the biggest British attack of 1915, the first time that the British used poison gas and the first mass engagement of New Army units. Th ...

, from 25 September - 8 October 1915. A major battle was fought by the Canadian Expeditionary Force at Hill 70 between 15–25 August 1917, resulting in the capture of that landscape feature dominating nearby Lens. Six Victoria Crosses were awarded for valour during that battle; a war memorial was officially unveiled there on 8 April 2017. At the end of the war, not a single building or tree had survived the pounding of artillery. Reminders of the war persist with the periodic discovery of unexploded

ordnance Ordnance may refer to: Military and defense *Materiel in military logistics, including weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and maintenance tools and equipment. **The military branch responsible for supplying and developing these items, e.g., the Unit ...

. The mining infrastructure, industry and transport were hit again during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

was mined here by the

Compagnie des mines de Béthune The Compagnie des mines de Béthune, sometimes called the sometimes called the Compagnie de Grenay after the name of the concession, was a French coal mining company in the Pas-de-Calais that was established in 1851 and nationalized in 1946. The co ...

from 1855 until 1946, and by its nationalized successor until 1986. The very rural village changed into a town, with many foreign workers, especially from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, swelling the workforce. A former mining site (''Écopole'') has been preserved and now hosts many cultural, economic and environmental activities which are the symbol of new developments for the commune. ''Écopole'' 11/19 comprises buildings dating from 1923 and a modern concrete winding tower (height 66m) which operated from 1960 to 1986. In recent years, Loos has experienced another kind of destruction: As the population left the mining towns seeking work elsewhere, about 1000 homes have been demolished in the recent past. The landscape is still marked by enormous

s, those of pits 11 and 19, visible for miles around. They are part of the mines of the Nord-Pas de Calais region that have become the 38th French site on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites as "a living and changing landscape". Several times in its history Loos came close to being removed from the map of France. Instead it has been reborn 5 times, and is still undergoing transformation. As of 2008, Loos-en-Gohelle was a town whose economy was dominated by light industry, textiles and workshops for artisans and professionals, but it also still retained a strong rural connection with thirty farms within the commune.

Population

Places of interest

* The church of

St. Vaast Vedast or Vedastus, also known as Saint Vaast (in Flemish, Norman and Picard) or Saint Waast (also in Picard and Walloon), Saint Gaston in French, and Foster in English (died ) was an early bishop in the Frankish realm. After the victory of T ...

, rebuilt, as was the rest of the town, after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. * The war memorials. * Écopôle 11/19 * The

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

cemeteries.

Geography

History

Population

Places of interest

See also