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Auchel (Municipality, Pas-de-Calais, France)

Flag of Auchel - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 8 August 2020

Presentation of Auchel
Flag of Auchel

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Presentation of Auchel

The municipality of Auchel (10,399 inhabitants in 2016; 60 ha) is located 20 km east of Béthune.

The Auchel coal mines were operated by Compagnie des Mines de Marles, owner of collieries in Marles-les-Mines (pits No. 2, 2bis and 2ter), Auchel (pits No. 3, 5 and 7), Rimbert-les-Auchel (pit No. 4), and Calonne-Ricouart (pit No. 6).
Pit No. 3, the company's main site, was composed of three shafts:
- Saint Firmin, 545 m in depth, exploited from 1878 to 1960, filled up in 1963;
- Saint Abel, 675 m in depth, abandoned in 1955, filled up in 1966;
- 3 ter, abandoned in spring 1962.
Pit No. 5 was composed of three shafts:
- Saint-Augustin, 671 m in depth, inaugurated in June 1872;
- 5bis, 660 m in depth, located 36 m from Saint-Augustin;
- 5ter, 690 m in depth, inaugurated in January 1936, mostly used to provide fresh air to the tow other shafts.
The exploitation of the pit stopped in November 1963. Shafts were filled up between 1969 and 1971.
[André de Marles blog, 26 October 2011]

Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 8 August 2020

Flag of Auchel

The flag of Auchel (photo, photo, photo) is white with the municipal logo, which features on a green leaf the name of the town, its coat or arms, and the words "Ville nouvelle" (New town) below.

The arms of Auchel, adopted in 1953, superseded the town's traditional arms, "Argent three roundels gules", which were the arms of the lords of Olhain - indeed the arms of the Counts of Boulogne, from whom the Olhain claimed to descend. The old arms are still visible on the Town Hall's frontispiece and above the parish church's gate.
[Armorial des villes et des vllages de France]

Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 8 August 2020