STEEPLEJACK'S CORNER 2012

[Stanley]

State Mill at Rochdale in 1979. A good example of a stack wich was totally neglected and when I was asked to look at it a few years later I was shocked by how bad it was. It was redundant and had massive cracks in the structure. I don't know whether it still stands, if it does and hasn't had any TLC, keep clear of it!

[Stanley]

John Pope on India Mill stack at Darwen.

[Stanley]

Peter Dolman on India stack. Same date as the previous one, 1960.

[Stanley]

India Mill stack in Darwen in 1979.

[Tizer]

Interesting photos related to construction...LINK

[Stanley]

Stunning pictures Tiz. I liked the pic of the man using a pinch bar made out of rebar as he worked on the reinforcing.... You don't get much more basic than that.



Old postcard of India Mill and the chimneys of Darwen in the days when smoke was seen as evidence of hard work!

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

The college stack at Carleton College, Northfield Minnesota. Did the design owe anything to Lancashire? It wouldn't look out of place here.....

[Stanley]

Demolition of Stubbins chimney in 1979.

[Invernahaille]

I was looking back a few pages ago, and I was thinking about the drone filming the Durban stack felling. I was wondering how much use is made of drones on stack inspections.

[Stanley]

It'll come Robert and who knows, it might make more work for the jacks when the owners and the HSE see the state of their chimney heads! Binocular inspection was always popular, the jacks didn't ignore the latest technology. Peter Tatham had a pair of very good Zeiss binoculars and he frequently used them.

[Stanley]

Peter understood the importance of a sound chimney head. Here's how we left Ellenroad after we replaced the top.... It will be a long time until this deteriorates.....

[Stanley]

Peter made a nice job of Bancroft chimney head as well. The Terracotta components, particularly the rim, were failing but Peter rescued them.

[Stanley]

Here's an extreme example of what the results are of years of neglect. The head of the chimney at Newtown Mill in 1987. You could see daylight through all the joints and Keith Batley frightened me to death by walking round on it! He invited me to do the same but I told him to get lost!

[Stanley]

Newtown Mill Chimney in Burnley being laddered by BEST in 1987.

[Stanley]

I haven't seen the Newtown stack since, was it ever attended to?

[plaques]

I'm not sure exactly which your Newtown Chimney is. There is a whole bunch of them in that area.

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Oak Mill taken last year from the top of the multistory carpark near Marks and Spencer's.

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The one behind Lodge Mill.

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At the end of Slaters Terrace

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The one on Hammerton St.

[Stanley]

This was Newtown Mill in 1987. The main interest in the mill was all the original machinery in Benn and Holmes. In the end it all went to another woodworking museum. That was how I got involved, English Heritage asked me to do a report on the fabric of the mill and the chimney and arrange an inspection. That's how BEST came to be laddering the stack.

[plaques]

I remember Benns & Holme as a joinery shop from after the war. This part of the old 'New Town Mill' was split off from the factory part and has now been converted to apartments going under the name of 'Lodge House'. The new plaque with this name covers the one shown in your picture. I would have liked to see the original plaque. Somewhere in my mind I still have this as 'Lodge Mill'. I'll have to do some more digging.

[plaques]

Got it wrong , Lodge Mill was down Barden Lane. The 'Newtown Chimney' is grade 2 listed. Link.
An extract reads:- Chimney to former cotton spinning mill. 1864. By Harling and Todd. Coursed squared sandstone. Tall, circular and slightly tapering, with a bullnose cavetto-moulded cornice at the head. A conspicuous feature in the view of this quarter of the town along the River Calder, being on its bank, and in the view of the town centre from Westgate.

[Stanley]

Good! Thanks for that P. Here's a pic of Slaters Terrace I did from Newtown Mill chimney in 1987.

[plaques]

Stanley, I think you are just testing me. I would have thought you would only get this view from the Oak Mount Mill. The view I took was was from the edge of Sandygate next to the mill and this was still at an angle with respect to your picture. Slaters Terrace has now been totally renovated, Its just waiting for some yuppies to move in. Then its back to swinging Burnley!

[Stanley]

Must have been from Newtown... That was the only stack I had anything to do with in the town centre.

[Stanley]

The chimney at Hammerton Street at what used to be Proctor's foundry where they made stokers used to fascinate me. Possibly the most neglected stack in Burnley and it had some very interesting chimney bands fastened together with wedges instead of the usual upturn and two bolts....