Bocard discovery path
Under pines and rocks, enjoy strolling along this secure footpath, waymarked, and download here the explanatory signs to prepare your visit.
Les panneaux jalonnés le long du sentier sécurisé vous permettront de découvrir ce site patrimonial d’exception pour comprendre comment la roche se transformait en argent et quels ont été les impacts d’une telle activité sur la commune au XIXe siècle.
For your safety and in order to preserve this easily damaged spot, LEAVING THE FOOTPATH IS FORBIDDEN.
Should any accident happen outside the footpath, this would be at your own risk and responsibility.
PLEASE DO NOT PICK UP ANY STONES OR ITEMS, archaeological research is underway.
Table des matières
Welcome to the Road to Silver
An important activity of mining and treating galena, a bluish, grey, or black mineral of metallic appearance, consisting of lead sulphide, developed in this small valley between 1781 and 1894.
Following the accidental discovery of potentially viable veins, galleries were dug out in the neighboring mountains so that blocks could be extracted.
After a first grading, these blocks were sent off to Villefort, where a factory already existed, transforming the ore into lead and silver ingots.
The activity quickly thrived.
But transportation turned out to be too costly: in 1827, a factory was built on the banks of the stream La Picadière, requiring important modifications.
Here started a real industry, that recruited its workforce even from abroad.
The factory provided, in 1847, a quarter of the national silver production!
But, from 1869, difficulties were increasing and the plant finally closed down in 1894.
Nature then reasserted itself, giving to this site nowadays, a character of romantic ruins.
- Jobs for hire !
For which job?
Working for the “Compagnie des Mines de Vialas” offered different possibilities: one might be recruited as a minor, timber worker, cleaner, ore grader, foundry worker, unskilled worker, etc. The Compagnie hired men, women and children. Wages were paid according to the work carried out each day, which was named here: le prix-fait. Foundry workers alone were paid by the hour, and they were also the only ones working at night, due to the duration of foundry campaigns. At the height of its activity, almost 500 people worked in the mine and the factory.
Comparative figures of the population, the factory workforce and the silver production, from 1847 to 1894
The boss: “paterfamilias”
Social status in the BOCARD complies with the ideology of the 19th century: the Compagnie set up capitalistic and paternalistic policies that contributed to the workers’ proletarianization. A relief fund and a savings bank were created by withdrawing from the wages, a school was opened for hired workers and orphans. Houses were built, and grocery stores were set up, where goods (bread, wine, cereals) were paid for with specific tokens, thereby making the worker dependent on his employer.
Peasants or minors?
At the beginning, employees were said to be inhabitants of Vialas or its surroundings, sharing their time between farming and industrial activity. But, in 1837, machines were stopped for almost a year due to a severe drought. When resuming activity, it was impossible to recruit enough workers. Where had they gone, all these peasant-minors? Had they left to work in other mining sites, choosing to be full-time minors instead of peasants?
Foreigners
The Compagnie called on German know-how for their qualified workforce. Labour shortage in the middle of 19th century spurred the management to lure foreigners, mostly from Italy (Piedmont and other regions). Very badly welcomed by the local population, these foreigners had a lot of trouble finding food and lodgings at an affordable price.
- A good vein !
When you observe the landscape, in the distance, you can see the Mont Lozère and the Trenze, a spectacular granite mountain range.
At your feet and in front of you, the hill of Castagnols is made of a darker, brown and angular stone: schist.
In the cracks of this rock, veins of galena have formed: this ore contains lead which contains silver, it is named silver-bearing lead.
An accidental discovery
In 1781, M. Vidal, while cutting broom, discovered a piece of galena. He gave it to the postman who brought it to the Director of Mines Royales de Villefort. Very impressed by the quality of this sample, the Director wished to meet M. Vidal as soon as possible. But the latter did not easily reveal his secret! The Director got him drunk for two full days! Slightly ashamed of his dishonest behavior, he offered him, as a token of gratitude, a blue suit with gilded buttons, that he had removed from his own suit!
- Extracting
A real Swiss cheese!
In front of you, the access to one of the galleries of the mine.
Horizontal galleries, named “travers-bancs”, gave access to the veins.
The ore was then extracted by forming terraces, named “kasths”.
Galleries were interconnected by vertical shafts.
The right tools
First extractions were made with a pickaxe, a “pointerolle” and a “fleuret”, a kind of chisel that you hit with a sledgehammer. Teams of two minors were necessary to use this sort of tools and the daily progress did not exceed a couple of centimetres.
Later on, the use of black powder, then dynamite, increased the factory’s output.
From 1878 onwards, in some of the galleries, they used a mechanical drilling machine run on an air compressor located inside the plant, itself activated by hydraulic force.
It works!
Once cut up, blocks were taken outside by drivers, using small truck trains.
- On the bank !
Scheidage
At the end of galleries, on what is named “the bank”, blocks were sorted out and washed and only those with the highest proportion of ore were retained. Manual sorting out is called “scheidage”. This was mainly done by women and children.
Halde-là!
Blocks were divided into several categories depending on their size and their ore content. The “slides” you see in front of you, also named “stalles” or “trémies”, were sorting out lanes, each fitting a specific ore quality. At the bottom, galena blocks were gathered and taken to the factory, at first by mules, later on by small trucks trains.
The barren part of the blocks, taken away during the scheidage, were discarded nearby, thereby forming the huge stone heap still visible nowadays, called “halde”.
Sorting out areas
Sorting out improved gradually and, eventually, was no longer only manual using small sledgehammers, but also by sifting and using settling tanks. This required building specific workshops. The ruined buildings you notice here are the remains of those workshops.
- The force of water
The plant was built in this small valley and named after one of the tools used to grind the ore: le Bocard.
Different activities were distributed according to the flow of the water, collected from the Luech 1200 meters upstream.
Inside the plant, a network of canals was used to retrieve and reuse the water, which fed, on four levels, a succession of paddle wheels, activating the various machines.
The plant’s organisation in 1860
Mechanical preparation workshops
Refinery and laboratory
Smelting works
Grocery stores and storage stores
Fuel stores
Ore’s settling tanks
Direction of the water’s flow in the channels
Paddle wheels or bucket wheels
- Mechanical preparation
A complex process
Blocks arrived in the plant below, where they underwent a treatment at various stages, named mechanical preparation. It aimed at taking out a maximum of barren elements by sorting out, grinding and washing the ore several times.
The final goal was to keep only the rich ore, ready to be smelted, named schlichs.
There were several consecutive operations, requiring the use of various machines.
Improvements were made throughout the 19th century, and this process became more complex: counting 63 procedures in 1855, it went up to 92 in 1863.
Most of the mechanical preparation took place here, in front of you, in the ruined part of the plant.
The most symbolic machines
During the 113 years of mining, several machines were used to sort out the ore by size or by density.
But which language do you speak?
Many of the words spoken in the plant are German-sounding. This is due both to the presence of German mining engineers coming from the Harz region, and to the technological lead of Germany in the field of metallurgical industry, due to an early industrial revolution.
The” bocard”
Activated by hydraulic force, a paddle wheel drove a camshaft that lifted wooden rams ending with cast-iron blocks. These rams hit in turn the ore, laid in a trough, to crush it into powder. Water bocards were also used: they were activated by the same process, but the ore was evacuated by water flowing in the troughs containing it.
The “crible anglais” was a rectangular sieve filled with ore that was immersed in a water tank. The ascending move made it easier to discard the light elements.
The “trommel” was a series of sloping cylinders riddled with holes of different sizes. Turning round on itself, it made it possible to sort out the broken stones according to their size.
The “caisson allemand”: using a scraper, named “râble”, the worker moved up the stones on an inclined plane, against the current. Bringing into play the density of elements, this device sorted them out: stones too heavy to be collected in the first tank went through holes, forming three layers of ore: rich, mixed and barren. This machine is also named “schlammgraben”.
La “table à secousses” was a long wooden sloping table, measuring 3 meters by 1,30 and suspended by chains. The table was hurled against a stop. Ore laid on this device was inondated, in order to clear away the mud and to sort it out, thanks to the shock produced by the play of density.
- Getting warm!
Metallurgic treating process
The ore, transformed into schlichs, was now ready to be smelted in large furnaces. This complex process was organized in several stages, it took place in the smelting works, and eventually produced pure silver.
Furnaces
- A first stage consisted in withdrawing the sulphur from the schlichs by means of a specific chemical reaction: oxidation. It was achieved in a furnace named “four à réverbère “ (reverberatory furnace) that roasted the ore. This furnace consisted of a vault reflecting the heat produced by a fire on the hearth, more or less concave surface where the ore to be smelted had been laid.
- The metal had then to be released by means of a chemical reaction named reduction. It was achieved inside a “four à manche” (sleeve furnace) heated by coke. High-temperature combustion of the coke produced carbon monoxide that reacted with the oxygen inside the roasted ore to create carbon dioxide and thereby release the metal. This operation, once completed, produced lead containing silver.
- Getting silver was possible only after a final operation in a third furnace, named “de coupellation” (cupellation furnace). This furnace, nearly circular in shape, 3 meters in diameter, could receive up to 2 tons of material. It meant oxidizing the crude lead to obtain the latest impurities named abzugs and abstrichts (that produced hard lead after being reprocessed), then litharge and almost pure silver.
Silver produced in this way had to be refined and smelted into ingots.
Results
Below you can see the results achieved after “cupellation”, expressed in percentage, for the year 1866, particularly prosperous :
Raw silver: 0,5%
Red litharges: 28%
Yellow litharges: 43%
Abstrichts: 11%
Cupel’s deposit: 17,5%
- Going up in smoke
A creeping stack
The site chosen to set up the factory is particularly steep. It was therefore difficult to evacuate toxic smoke generated by the furnaces beyond the surrounding summits through a vertical stack. That is why a creeping stack was built all along the mountain, supported by a succession of vaults. After sinuously running along the mountain for a distance of more than 200 meters, the stack ended with a vertical portion.
The “Black Road”
The goods were sent to warehouses in Génolhac before being commercialized throughout France, using the road that started right after the stack. It was nicknamed “Black Road”, since it was covered in gravel from the scoria, remnants from the metallurgical processing. It followed the Luech until the “Pont Rouge” (built in brick) before reaching the hamlet “Maison Rouge”. You may still notice in this hamlet a monolith mentioning “route des mines et de l’usine”. In 1890, a huge rise in water levels washed away the retaining wall and the path was destroyed. The company, already confronted with great financial difficulties, could never rebuild it.
- Cover it up !
An unfavorable location
The topography close to the mine is not really appropriate to set up a factory. In order to have at its disposal a sufficient flat space, the Picadière stream was covered up for about a hundred meters by a huge vault in schist.
A vault full of mystery
This structure is one of the specificities of the factory in Vialas, but we do not have any absolute certainty, neither about its date nor about its building methods. A bridge already existed in 1813 to link both banks of the Picadière. Was it extended gradually?
Several archive materials lead us to believe that this vault might be the result of work carried out as far back as 1873, shortly before the setting up of the smelting works, as a result of the permanent closure of factory in Villefort.
- A mine asleep in the woods
The sleeping beauty…
The factory and the mine closed down in 1894. Buildings were sold and nature reasserted itself, giving to this site nowadays a character of romantic ruins, likely to inspire artists.
Although he never names the place, Jean-Pierre Chabrol starts his novel “La Gueuse” with this description:
“Une toute petite ville morte se cache dans un trou de verdure, au pied du Mont-Lozère. C’est un bourg verdoyant où l’arbre a supplanté le Bourgeois {….} Ce gros bourg n’est pas tout à fait mort, un autre règne est venu remplacer celui de l’homme. Après la fuite des habitants, la flore en a pris possession et l’habite. C’est rudement joli. Il y a partout du monde au balcon : là un figuier, là un noisetier {…} Il ne reste rien des toits, que des arcs élancés de voûtes admirables, mais les vents, les arbustes et les échos peuplent ces vieux murs de vies bruyantes. » (Jean-Pierre Chabrol, chapitre 1, la mise au bois dormant, in La Gueuse, Les rebelles tome 8, Paris, Plon, 1966)
… now awakes
Since 2008, an association based in Vialas, Le Filon des Anciens, together with the municipality of Vialas and the Cevennes National Park work hand in hand with a view to the recognition and protection of this exceptional heritage.
In 2014, the site of the BOCARD was listed as a Supplementary Historical Monument and archeological excavations have been carried out since 2016. Numerous facilities have been made to preserve the existing elements, facilitate access to the location and deepen the public’s knowledge of its history.
How to get there?
Walking
From the village centre, follow the Chemin de la Vigne, to reach the calade which will lead you in 20 minutes to the hamlet La Planche and the Bocard site.
By car
Starting from the Temple of Vialas, drive and turn right towards Col de Banette and La Planche. Car park on the site.
For your information:
- Discovery path – free access, waymarked, 3 km, about 2 hours walking
- Picnic area on the river bank
- For your security and the preservation of this fragile site, it is forbidden to venture outside the marked footpath. Should any incident occur outside of the footpath, you will be considered as the solely responsible
- Site is not adapted for prams nor for persons with reduced mobility
- Please DO NOT collect stones or objects: archaeological research is under way
Visits
For those who want to learn more details about the Bocard’s history, guided tours are organized on regular basis by Mariette Emile, guide-conférencière.
Guided tours will take you inside the ancient smelting works, into the archaeological site (visible from the footpath but closed to the public on individual basis). These visits are not adapted to persons with reduced mobility.
Guided tours for individuals are planned from April to October.
For groups guided tours, visits take place all year round.
Contact: Mariette EMILE (+33) 06 37 91 66 25
Le Bocard et les scolaires
La Révolution Industrielle est un élément important du programme d’Histoire en cycle 3, en 4ème et en première. L’acquisition d’une culture scientifique, technologique et industrielle est un des objectifs poursuivis par l’Éducation Nationale : « questionner le monde » en cycle 2, « matière, mouvement, énergie, information » en cycle 3, enseignements scientifiques à partir du collège.
La mine de Vialas peut être abordée sous l’angle de l’architecture, des techniques, de la chimie et de la géologie ou de la littérature, dans une démarche pluridisciplinaire intéressante. Les vestiges spectaculaires et la fascination pour l’argent-métal suscitent l’intérêt des jeunes.
Mariette EMILE, guide-conférencière, propose des découvertes adaptées du site sous forme de « chasse aux indices », et des interventions en amont ou en aval de la visite.
Télécharger le Dossier pedagogique Bocard pour collèges
And why not spend a whole day in Vialas?
After the visit to the mine, a small beach on the river bank, with picnic tables and a dry toilet, awaits you for a swim.
Another remarkable monument: the protestant Temple, one of the few that was not completely destroyed during the guerre des Camisards in the 17th century, can be found in the village.
In Figeirolles, towards the direction of Moulin Bonijol (another testimony of traditional life, admirably restored), you will encounter some curious land art works, made of dry stones by Roland Mousquès.
And finally, the village is famous for its hiking trails, its Rocher de Trenze laid out for free climbing, as well as for the pure water of its rivers.
