AFTER reading about the historic mill chimney in Keighley being taken apart – Distinctive chimney going brick by brick (Keighley News, December 22) – this prompted me to put pen to paper about steeplejacks, men who climbed these 200ft monsters.
The most famous was Fred Dibnah, from Bolton.
In 1978, Fred was demolishing the chimney at Briar Mill, Lancashire, that had to be dismantled brick by brick.
He pitched the price high – £7,000 to take the whole lot down, 20,000 bricks a brick at a time. It took five months’ work. In his own words, he said: “I set out as a steeplejack to preserve chimneys, I finished up by knocking most of them down.”
This man was a one-off, not a millionaire – down to earth and with a great sense of humour. Not many steeplejacks or 200ft chimneys left now.
D GIBSON-REE The Grove, Crossflatts
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