User:Bangiomorpha/Eau d'Heure

Eau d'Heure
The Eau d’Heure in Ham-sur-Heure.
Location
Country	Belgium
Province	Hainaut
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Cerfontaine
• coordinates	50°11′01″N 04°22′10″E
Mouth
• location	Marchienne-au-Pont (Charleroi)
Basin size	344 km2 (133 sq mi)

The Eau d'Heure is a Belgian river, a right bank tributary of the Sambre and therefore part of the Meuse watershed. It takes its source in the Fagne and flows into the Sambre at Marchienne-au-Pont. This river gave birth to the complex of the dams of Eau d'Heure.

Geography

The 47.7 km long river flows into the Sambre at Marchienne-au-Pont after receiving dozens of tributaries including the Eau d'Yves at Walcourt.

Here is its route:

Eau d'Heure, Namur-Hennuyère river. Wall basin, by Meuse and Sambre; depth 50 to 150 cm.

Cerfontaine, source in the Bois du Seigneur "wood of Seigneur".

L'Eau d'Heure in Cour-sur-Heure.

Plate-Taille dam at Eau d'Heure Lakes.

Water jet of the Eau d'Heure dam in Silenrieux.

Km - Itinerary

• 1.2 - confluence of Pré des Bois (right)
• 1.7 - Vaux confluence (right)
• 1.8 - railway culvert (former)
• 2.7 - village
• 2.7 - Rowlet confluence (right)
• 3.4 - Rosière confluence (left)
• 4.2 - railway culvert (former)
• 4.4 - Railway culvert (former)
• 4.7 - Soumoy confluence (right) - (Falemprise dam or lake)
• 4.7 - limit of Silenrieux
• 4.7 - birth of an arm of the river (right)
• 5.1 - railway culvert (former)
• 5,5 - confluence of the Fontaine Hubiet (left) at the limit of Boussu-lez-Walcourt
• 6.4 - Silenrieux, confluence of the Plate Taille (left)
• 6.5 - Railway culvert (former)
• 6.6 - junction of the river arm
• 6.9 - railway culvert (former)
• 7.6 - Taille aux Truites confluence (left)
• 7.7 - railway culvert (former)
• 8.3 - confluence of Petit Mazarin (left)
• 8.7 - confluence of the Jeanne (right) (Ry Jaune)
• 9.0 - confluence of the Grand Mazarin (left)
• 9.7 - Railway culvert (former)
• 9.7 - confluence of the Boussu-lez-Walcourt (left)
• 10.4 - Silenrieux, railway culvert (former)
• 11.8 - village road
• 11.8 - confluence of the Gayot (right)
• 12.6 - pond near the road
• 13.0 - railway culvert at station (former)
• 13.2 - railway culvert (former)
• 13.4 - Denous confluence (right)
• 13.5 - confluence of the Grand Ry (left), at Pisselotte
• 14.0 - Battefer
• 15.6 - Railway culvert (former)
• 15.9 - Gerlimpont confluence (left)
• 16.0 - Railway culvert at the border of Walcourt (former)
• 17.0 - Walcourt, village
• 17.3 - confluence of the Yves (right)
• 17.5 - railway culvert
• 17.7 - Station Road
• 18.9 - Pry boundary
• 19.1 - Pry, railway culvert
• 19.7 - Fond des Bois confluence (left)
• 19.9 - railway culvert at Tombois Road
• 20.5 - Village Road
• 21.3 - railway culvert
• 22.2 - railway culvert
• 23.0 - railway culvert at the border of Thy-le-Château
• 24.6 - Berzée, confluence of Longs Prés (left)
• 25.1 - confluence of the Thyria (right), at the station
• 26.4 - fork of the railway
• 26.6 - confluence of the Praile (left)
• 26.7 - border of the provinces of Namur and Hainaut
• 27.3 - Cour-sur-Heure, village road
• 27.9 - railway halt
• 29.5 - confluence of the Moulin (right)
• 29.9 - birth of a branch of the river, on the left
• 30.0 - railway culvert
• 30.9 - Ham-sur-Heure, Hameau mill
• 30.9 - station
• 31.2 - railway crossing
• 31.8 - junction of the river branch
• 32.5 - junction of another branch of the river, at the village
• 34.1 - railway culvert
• 34.2 - confluence of X... (right)
• 35.4 - confluence of Chêneau (right)
• 35.9 - railway culvert
• 36.1 - limit of Jamioulx
• 37.0 - Jamioulx, railway culvert
• 37.9 - railway culvert
• 38.8 - Station Road
• 38.8 - confluence of the Fôret (left)
• 39.6 - Mon Plaisir mill
• 40.0 - railway culvert
• 40.0 - confluence of the Bernobée (left)
• 40.0 - confluence of the Champ (right)
• 40.0 - limit of Montignies-le-Tilleul
• 40.6 - Montignies-le-Tilleul, confluence of the Fonterbois (right)
• 40.9 - railway culvert
• 41.3 - station
• 42.6 - railway culvert
• 42.6 - the boundary of Mont-sur-Marchienne
• 44.3 - the limit of Marchienne-au-pont
• 45.9 - Mont-sur-Marchienne, chemin de Zône
• 46.2 - railway culvert
• 47.4 - Marchienne-au-Pont, village
• 47.5 - Marchienne-au-Pont, Hôpital Van Gogh
• 47.6 - railway culvert
• 47.7 - mouth of the Sambre

The Eau d'Heure spring - at an altitude of 292.5 m, one of Cerfontaine's highest points - is located in the centre of a forest massif of several thousand hectares, which separates the basins of the Sambre to the north and the Meuse to the south. Situated on either side of a ridge line, the forests are a veritable water tower where dozens of streams originate, including three major rivers:

The Eau d'Heure which, after 4 km of a rural course, is trapped in the largest dam system in Belgium, the Eau d'Heure Lakes complex

The Hantes, less than 2 km to the west, on Froidchapelle, 60 m from the boundary of Cerfontaine, still on the same ridge line;

The Brouffe, finally, to the south, formed by several streams coming from Cerfontaine, Senzeilles and Froidchapelle; it receives its name at the border of Cerfontaine and Géronsart (Boussu-en-Fagne-Couvin), a tributary of the Eau Blanche, which a little further on joins the Eau Noire to form the Viroin and join the French Meuse.

The spring is called in Walloon: "èl' fontène-mére dè Djerpène", i.e. the main source of the Eau d'Heure; "Djerpène" should mean the domain of Grippa, like the locality of Gerpinnes.

Except in the event of heavy rain, the spring, situated at the bottom of a small creek, only supplies water a dozen or two metres after its source, because of a catchment made in 1906 some 250 m downstream, for the water supply in the locality.

In Cerfontaine, therefore at its source, the inhabitants used to say, wrongly, that it owes its name to the fact that it rises by one metre in an hour. If this phenomenon is true, it is due to the accentuated relief of the ground and the semi-torrential character of the river.

Its name could be of pre-Celtic origin, like the Our, the Aar, and mean water that flows.

Flow

The average flow of the river measured at Marchienne-au-Pont between 1992 and 2001 is 3.8 m3/s. During the same period we recorded :

A maximum average annual flow of 6.0 m3/s in 2001;

A minimum average annual flow of 2.4 m3/s in 1996.

A canalization project in 1831

Towards the end of the Dutch regime, the Chamber of Commerce of Charleroi presented a request to the King of the Netherlands on the state of the blacksmith's trade, asking for a heavy tax on the import of foreign irons, in order to defend this industry. In 1831, this project was revised, the idea of new customs duties was dropped and the low cost of transport was emphasised. Within the framework of the "Canal projects for the Meuse basin", an engineer proposed the creation of a canal that would follow the course of the Eau d'Heure to link the Couvin and Chimay regions to the Black Country.

Strangely enough, the title given to his proposal was "The Chimay Canal"... Was it to pay homage to the Prince of Chimay, who could have been one of the instigators of the request to King William I, or perhaps because the said prince was a prominent figure of his time, who could have used his influence to bring about this project? We do not know.

Bibliography

• Lucien Hochsteyn, Monographie des cours d’eau. Voies innavigables, Brussels, 1908
• L’entité de Cerfontaine, aux sources de l’Eau d’Heure, Cahier du Musée de Cerfontaine, n° 166, 35 pages A4, 24 photos in colors and 17 illustrations, 2012.
• André Lépine, " Le canal de Chimay (1831) et le chemin de fer de l'Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse (1844) : deux projets de désenclavement ambitieux, avec une carte de l'ESM (1844) et le rapport sur l'ouverture de la 1ère partie de la ligne , Marchienne-Walcourt (1848), Cahier du Musée de Cerfontaine, n° 468, 18 pages and one map, 2021.