STEEPLEJACK'S CORNER 2012

[Stanley]

Interesting comment Tom..... Chimneys varied a lot didn't they. Swabs was like a milk bottle when you compare the thickness of the wall at the base with its ground area. It was almost 40 feet across inside the base.

[Spinningweb]

Mentioning photos that was something which hadn't dawned on me when in the Hartford Mill's chimney flue taking pictures where it meets the stack. The opening into the chimney was a triangular shape with an iron girder over the top, inside the stack was about two foot above the level of the flue as flue dust had turned solid. The draught from the boiler house at that point was very strong, maybe because of how high the chimney was Iv'e no idea.

[Steeplejerk]

I've uploaded an image into the steeplejack gallery,I expected the stack to be at least twice the thickness.

[PanBiker]

This one Tom?

[Stanley]

That'll be the one Ian and Tom's right, that's remarkably thin. Notice the air gap between the stack and the firebrick liner.... There are only five courses in the stack wall. The builders must have had balls of steel!

[Steeplejerk]

I bet it swung about a bit in high winds

[Stanley]

[Spinningweb]

The stack looked like a road map with all the breaks in the brickwork.

[Stanley]

Some of these mills were built during the false economic boom in the Lancashire industry between the wars. One gets the impression that corners were being cut!
See 'Lancashire Under the Hammer' by Ben Bowker who was editor of The Lancashire Daily Post and knew what he was talking about. He identified the mistakes being made before they became obvious.

[Spinningweb]

Inside the Hartford Mill stack, the damper door in the boiler house was partially open but couldn't get through to the flue, but to its left was a small metal framed 30" inch square flue access which once had a slide down shutter. Had to use a camera tripod on account of the draught drawing up.