STEEPLEJACK'S CORNER 2012

[Stanley]

One of my mate Robert's chimneys. It was a detached chimney at Sowerby Bridge which served a mill on the other side of the road. The mill is long gone and the chimney was kept and preserved by Robert but inevitably it deteriorated and here BEST were making the bands safe. I think that local pressure led to it being reduced shortly afterwards. I haven't seen it since this job was done.

[Stanley]

Posting that pic of another of Robert's chimneys reminded me of an argument I had one day at Lancaster with Peter White who was then Inspector of Ancient Monuments (NW) at what was then the DOE but later English Heritage. He was railing against Robert on the grounds that when he died someone would have to look after them and the responsibility would fall on the government. I asked him what was wrong with that if they got control of a wonderful part of our industrial heritage. Funnily enough, not long afterwards I was one of the people asked to suggest what criteria should be applied to requests for permission to demolish chimneys. They were trying to get a handle on what should be saved. I still say that one day Robert will be recognised as being very far-sighted....

[Invernahaille]

Stanley,
This an update from the Rochdale Observer
http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-fe ... chairwoman

[Stanley]

Thanks for that Robert. I didn't know.... Thelma Wright, the other lady mentioned was, with Joan Smith, one of the volunteers I trained to run the engine and they ran it together one memorable Sunday from start to finish. I reckon that was the first time ever a big engine had been run from boiler fire up to shut down for one day. Little recognised and probably the best thing I ever did while I was there.



Livingstone Mill at Briercliffe in 1987.

[Stanley]

The chimney head at Livingstone Mill. A nice shape and well banded. Is it a Stott head?

[Invernahaille]

Certainly look like one Stanley. Garfield Mill in Newhey stack was like that until they removed the drum.

[Stanley]

Thanks for that Robert, I thought it was. I forget the name but Dunphy Combustion's mill was a Stott design and it reminded me of that.

[Steeplejerk]

Its just a normal terracotta head,Dunphy's has a cast iron head,Stotts chimneys normally have 2 stringcoarses.

[Stanley]

Good Lad Tom! Nice to see you are alive and well.....

[Stanley]

What the well dressed researcher wears in a flue as bad as Swabs.....

[Stanley]

Swabs in 1979. Whichever way you looked at it a very impressive stack. 343 feet according to Peter who measured a chimney with his ladders. Reputed to be the tallest brick stack in Europe at the time.

[Invernahaille]

Stanley,
Just a further clip about Ellenroad from The Rochdale Observer
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... am-8149476

[Stanley]

You'll notice that they made no mention of the fact that Joan and Thelma are not brewing tea but running the engine. Why is it so hard to credit them with this?

[Stanley]

I've decided I'm going to write an article about Joan and Thelma and the day they ran the Ellenroad engine....



The great thing about climbing chimneys is the view! This is 1981, the Bancroft demolition site from the top of the chimney as Peter was refurbishing it .

[Stanley]

Bancroft chimney in 1981. The shaped parts of the head were terracotta. Legend is 'Huncoate B & T Co. Ltd. (brick and tile company) 'DURO'. The dovetail keys were made of terracotta also.

[Stanley]

That picture of the head on Bancroft stack reminded me that the first time I had the stack laddered we found a cast iron firebar laid across the orifice. Somebody had come across the 'jimmy' that loco engineers used to fit to their blast pipes to improve draught and had thought it would do the same on a stack. Totally wrong of course and actually marginally hindered the existing draught. I suspect it might have been done in desperation in the late 1940s when the additional Cornish boiler was installed to augment steam raising capacity. The stack was totally inadequate for the draught needed and the boiler was never used.

[Stanley]

Butterworth Hall Mill Milnrow in 1987 when it was occupied by a firm making packaging.

[Stanley]

Demolition of Butterworth Hall stack. Was it in the early 1990s?

[Invernahaille]

Stanley,
For a while it was owned by TPT (Textile Paper Tubes) When the photo was taken it was probably part of the Sonoco group . They still have a factory on Station Rd in Milnrow.

[Stanley]

Thanks Robert. I knew that but had forgotten. My interest in that area was because the workings of the old Butterworth Hall mine met those of the Jubilee Colliery under Ellenroad. I found out that a block of coal had been left under Ellenroad to avoid subsidence... The workings are flooded now and were at one time used as a water resource for town's water.... The professional opinion was that as long as the workings were flooded, attrition of the pillars left after the pillar and stall working would remain strong enough to prevent subsidence under the motorway junction for the foreseeable future.

[Stanley]

There were alternative ways to bring a stack down......

[Stanley]

Dee Mill stack after Mervyn blew its feet from under it. A very tidy job.

[Stanley]

The frost this morning reminds me of the time Peter Tatham was brought in by Robert Aram to remove the ugly and deteriorating brick extension on Woodhouse Mill at Todmorden. It was so bad that he waited until there was a hard frost because it made it safer to ladder it, he said the ice was holding it together. As he drove his dogs in he could hear dislodged bricks falling down the inside of the shaft. Peter said he was glad when he got down to the original stone construction which was far stronger.

[Stanley]

The stack in 1986 after shortening and capping, looks much better!

[Stanley]

Over the years I have had quite a lot of experience with chimneys and one of my main conclusions is that the most important section of the stack, all other things being equal, is the ability of the head to withstand attraction from the products of combustion and more importantly, the weather.



Here's the head of Ellenroad chimney after we had rebuilt the drum. Peter Tatham's method of finishing the head was to cast concrete segments separated by bitumen joints and tied by copper rods embedded in the concrete in situ. I've never seen anything to beat this and when you add stainless steel hold downs built into the construction at low level on the drum and use them to tie down a GRP venturi to protect the interior from the worst of the weather I think you have got as near to perfection as possible. Of course the rest of the stack is important and needs good maintenance but if you can keep the head sound and firm you have got the best start possible.