STEEPLEJACK'S CORNER 2012

[Wendyf]

I've found newspaper reports that they were based at 11 Primet Bridge Colne. Nice caravan though Stanley!

[Stanley]

I think you're right Wendy, that address rings a bell.
I woke this morning convinced I had seen a Haworth advertisement in Worrall's Directory. I have just trawled through the 1939 directory but no luck. I'm convinced it's in one of them!

[Wendyf]

The question was sparked by these photos from Colne Library's collection when they were posted on my friend's 'Old Colne Photographs' Facebook group. Someone asked if it was where Howarths had their office, he remembered his uncle Harry Hill working for them.

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335530473_730171392144826_4263258756299956774_n.jpg

[Wendyf]

This is a cutting from a local newspaper which mentions the office being near Primet Bridge and it turns out that Harry Hill is top right.
Sorry it's not very clear, I'll redo it after breakfast!

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[Wendyf]

Here's a download of the page from the 1954 Barlick & Earby Times.

BL_0001529_19540813_124_0006.pdf

[Spinningweb]

Two newspaper reports from the 6th & 7th May 1936 regarding steeplejack George Haworth.

[Spinningweb]

It seems this months demolition by explosives of the Hartford Mill chimney in Oldham has been cancelled, and will be lowered brick by brick next month as local residents have received a second letter, its like Fred Karno's circus. The mills demolition began in 2018 and the site is still nowhere finished.

[Stanley]

N&R would have had it away by now John....

[Spinningweb]

One for Swifty to read Stanley.

Oldham Times

Oldham mill demolition: Changes to explosion evacuation plan

Wednesday 12th April 2023

Residents nearby to the Hartford Mill demolition site have been given an update on plans to evacuate homes near to the site.
The mill’s chimney was set to be demolished with explosives on April 2 by UK Green Waste & Remediation Ltd but had been postponed to April 30 to avoid conflicting with Ramadan.

Now, the demolition has been postponed again, after a machine became available that meant the explosion, and resulting evacuation, could be cancelled.

Eddie Bentham, a health and safety manager at the demolition site, said: “It was always our preferred choice to take down with a machine.
“The machines became available towards the back end of May. To pin these machines down is really hard work.

“We’ve still got a few things to iron out with the planning department. They are happier that it is coming down with machines rather than explosives.”

The change means residents will not need to evacuate their homes while the demolition takes place, with May 22 given as a tentative date for the works to take place.

The beleaguered mill was subject to calls for demolition following arson attacks and anti-social behaviour.
Plans to demolish the mill were approved in 2019.

The building had been Grade II listed since March 1993, but Government greenlit the demolition months later to make way for residential development.

Demolition works began in 2020, and was expected to take six months, but works were halted due to Covid restrictions.

Works resumed in summer 2021, but Lancashire-based TFM Demolition Ltd was issued a prohibition notice by authorities after evidence emerged that the site welfare cabin was being used as living quarters by a security guard.

Evidence of alcohol use and smoking was also uncovered in the site’s welfare unit, leading to the security guard being let go.
The mill, which was opened in 1907, produced cotton until the 1950s.

However, it had been empty since 1991 after Littlewoods, which used the building as a mail order depot, vacated the site.
The condition of the site rapidly deteriorated and prior to demolition, the mill became an anti-social behaviour hotspot, covered in graffiti and surrounded by rubbish.

[Stanley]

[Tripps]

I think this chap surely deserves to be in this corner. . . .

Britain's oldest steeplejack

[Stanley]

Yep, at 75 he qualifies.

[Finberty]

First-time poster on this site, which is absolutely fascinating.

I live within sight of the Ellenroad stack, which is currently laddered, and has been for some time. I don't know what work is going on there, but there is at least one full-length line trailing down, so a fair amount of H&S equipment on view.

One thing that always intrigued me, and maybe Stanley can answer this, but does a chimney stack sway or tremble in strong wind, and is that feature designed into it? Do different structures behave differently?

Also, how long would you expect to be at the top of a stack before tiredness dictated it was safer to descend? Was there a macho environment in the trade or was safety always paramount? Thanks.

[plaques]

One thing that always intrigued me, and maybe Stanley can answer this, but does a chimney stack sway or tremble in strong wind, and is that feature designed into it? Do different structures behave differently?

I'm not a chimney expert but simple harmonics (sway) would take the least energy to 'excite' the chimney. Higher orders of harmonic vibration would require more energy and the chimney would more likely fail before these were induced. Similarly I wouldn't think the chimney would suffer from torsional vibration for the same reasons.
Most tall buildings sway and this affect is part of the calculations. Having some degree of movement is safer than an absolutely rigid structure were the all stress is taken at the base.

I'll wait and see what Stanley or our resident steeple jack says.

[Stanley]

Correct Ken, they do sway. It could be time for my haunted chimney story....

There was one funny incident during our job at Ellenroad. Peter had a young lad working for him at the time, he was a cheeky little bugger but sharp with it. I arrived one morning just as he was setting up at the chimney base to start hauling bricks up to the top. He was looking puzzled and I asked him what was the matter. “I don’t like this chimney, it’s haunted!” I asked him what brought him to this conclusion and he said he’d show me. He went into the chimney base and held the weighted hook on the fall of the tackle until it was still. Then he stood back and said “In ten minutes that hook will be swinging until it touches the wall!” I took him to the hut and we had a cup of tea. When we went back, sure enough the hook was gently swinging like a pendulum and was almost touching the side. He said “There you are, I told you so. It must be haunted, there’s no wind to move the chimney!”
He was right of course, it wasn’t the wind but it wasn’t haunted either. I told him that what we had was probably the best Foucault Pendulum in the world as its moment was over 200 feet! I explained that what he was looking at was a vibration caused by the earth wobbling on its axis as it turned and that the principle had been understood for hundreds of years. I don’t know whether he believed me but he seemed happier about it afterwards!

So yes, the answer is that they do sway, in fact they are never still.
One other chimney fact that fascinates me. If you look at the images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atomic bombs you'll see that the tallest structures that survived were factory chimneys.

[Tizer]

That's a cue for me to repeat my story of a night in a Copenhagen hotel (don't worry, it's nothing dubious!). The multi-storey hotel was on the western edge of the city and subject to strong winds. After a meal and a few drinks I returned to my room high up in the building but began to feel like I was slightly drunk or had something wrong with my balance. I then stood with feet together and placed both my hands down lightly on the desk. I was swaying as if on a boat. The room had a very large window facing west and when I looked at it from an oblique angle it was easy to see the glass sheet bowing in and out with the gusts of wind. Putting my hands on the centre of the glass I could feel it too. There was only one way to deal with the problem. I went down, had a couple more beers to neutralise the effects and then returned and slept soundly!

[Stanley]

What a lovely topic this was! (Still is of course!)

[Steeplejerk]

It was a great topic but I think we covered everything

[Stanley]

We certainly ranged far and wide. As far as I know, the only website catering specifically for jacks.

[Spinningweb]

Demolition by explosives of the former Ferranti owned Gem Mill chimney in Chadderton, Oldham, C-2008, the site was bought by Redrow Homes. I was told the iron plates surrounding the stack hold in the explosive energy to cause maximum destruction of the brickwork. Pictures by permission Michaela Hardman.

[Spinningweb]

Follow on photographs.

[Stanley]

Thanks for that John..... Another one bites the dust!

[Spinningweb]

Nearly two weeks ago in nearby Werneth, the town lost its second largest stack at the former Hartford Mill site, taken down by the same method, it was all over in seconds, a long cutting was made for the chimney to fall but fell in a small area.

[Stanley]

That sounds like a telescoping John. A sign of a chimney that had lost its integrity. Very dangerous......

[Steeplejerk]

Very thin at the base I noticed from the photos I was sent,I was very surprised