St luke and st Phillips steeple race Blackburn
visited stonemonkey and Mr pink
cant seem to find any history on this incredible building.
Mr.Pink
Having lived in the area for a number of years earlier in my life I know the lay of the land around the church quite well. The church is sited on bank top around 6feet from the main road which intersects at the church with 2 other roads that are very popular cut throughs for taxis and locals that know their way about. The area is pretty downtrodden and a hotspot for heroin addicts and prostitutes who patrol the area looking for business..so in the evening when all the "normal folk" retire to bed this place comes alive with ladies of the night, smack heads scoring their gear and police vans patrolling and stopping anyone(that's everyone) who looks dodgy.
We look dodgy! Walking up and down the road past the ladders when on the rare occasion a car or person is not within a hundred yards of the church.
The ladders are facing the busy main road around six ft away and conveniently lit up by a street lamp for the first thirty ft, the bottom section of the ladder is missing so after a quick plan is hatched and a way up is agreed, I stand in the shadow of one of the columns as a drunken couple stumble up the street, as they draw level to my position the toothless lady looks right at me and jumps out of her skin "fuckin hell you shit me up" she says, the fellow with her looks me up and down and I wonder how the fuck he's going to react to me startling the beautiful toothless creature he is with..... I've a harness on and a big coil of rope in my hand and im stood in the shadows, "alright.?" I enquire..."hiya mate " he returns and they carry on their way talking about what the fuck I'm up to, they hang around at the top of the street watching for a while.
Less than every 20 seconds, a vehicle goes past, the police have been past numerous times and done a pnc check on a youth outside the church..
A few deep breaths and I resign to just have a go, no time for ascending gear I part hand and fist up the rope, part urban free climb the features till my grubby palm slaps satisfyingly onto the bottom rung and I'm away.
StoneMonkey
As soon as mr pink gets on the ladders I start to ascend the features and rope, we had put in place to assist ascent, hand over hand but as soon as I pull down mr pink shouts to me not to come up as he could really feel my weight pulling down so I terminate the ascent… this time but theres cars coming, and more cars so I hide out of the way round the corner in the dark shadow then another cars coming down the side road… shit!! I casually walk across the road in my harness and hide away till the coast is clear. Right, all is quiet so I start making my way to the ladders and again I was thwarted with traffic! Another break in traffic and I get on the ascent, grabbing the rope and urban climbing…. Oh boy was this cool… but tiring not using any ascending gear, no time to check for activity at this point so I just went for it till I got on the ladders and up above the street lights, ahh that’s better, had to stop as a few more cars drove past then plain sailing up the ladders for 60/70 feet to the belfry… (no rope) till I meet mr pink sort of wedged between the steeple and a corner turret as there was bearly room for the two of us to get too comfy, how do we say to each other and have a quick giggle that after an hour and a half or more of having to retreat due to cars, this was a relief to be out of sight, we both set about taking pictures of sorts.
looking down from the belfry
views
2 blue things in the sky
View attachment 644360
Mr Pink
So here we are without incident more or less on the belfry, room is very tight and we chill for a moment before we go up the steeple which from here looks bloody amazing, the full moon has illuminated the very top of the ladder and the weather vane.
Mr pink has a smoke and watch the junkies, prostitutes and pissheads stumble up and down the street, people watching from such a position is fascinating.
We are now surrounded by the decorative stone finials and columns of the belfry, completely in the shadows we know we are out of site and the job is in the bag as long as we don't fall off..the cameras come out and some mediocre shots are taken before I get bored and grab hold of the steeple ladder..."I'm off....see you shortly"
Stonemonkey
Mr pink shoots off up the very inviting steeple ladders so I set about taking shots as he goes on his way, these ladders arnt exactly inline with the steeple, they kind of kick out abit in sections and they were held away from the steeple by spaceing brackets, which gives a little mor exposure for sure. Mr pink finally arrives back down to the belfry, I think he was up there a while, I couldn’t tell you as I was too busy taking shots while he was out of site. Next up…. Stonemonkey…. WOW! The feel of going up the steeple to the very top was awesome, probably coz we love this shit but the views and exposure grew and grew till I was at the top! I know I was up there for a fair bit taking shots and it felt good, slightly scary but good! Got some shots and came down. Buzzin, we giggle abit about what we have both done and decide we are going to abb off. I dropped a line down the side away from the road (the dark side/corner) we used to hide but I couldn’t see the rope hit the floor so we wernt sure if it was down, mr pink drops it off the front to check its hit the floor as the front is well lit, yep its down, we chuck it back over the dark side ready for the abb.
weathervain
from the top of the steeple
stonemonkey going up.
MrPink
As I see that stone monkey is returning back down to the belfry I start to sort out the rope for the abseil off, it's pitch black and as is typical the bastard rope is kinked and knotted up but I daren't put a lamp on so struggle on. Stone monkey is on the bottom ladder now and makes a few exasperated exclamations about his recent experience up at the pointy end with the weather vane.
Having sod all else to anchor the ab rope onto I thread it through a few rungs of the ladder, now I'm not 100% happy about this as it will be pulling out and not at the usual down the way the ladder is designed to resist weight...there are no options and with a few nervous looks at each other and some words of caution from stonemonkey I clip in and very gently abseil the first few feet before thinking the longer I'm on this line the more risk there is...and so Abandon caution and let the line slip through as fast as I could...boom....my feet hit the floor and another fine job is ticked.
Stonemonkey
Mr pink is now down on the ground, im there on my own, not a problem, I take the back up sling off, im not leavin one of my slings up there, sod that, and start the abb trying to be as smooth as I can, didn’t take long till I was near the floor and had to stop while mr pink took some more shots, down we sorted gear, ropes etc and took a selfie (as you do) lol and headed off back. All in all a nice little job that!
Stonemonkey and Mr pink
Photos are from both ourselves.
visited stonemonkey and Mr pink
cant seem to find any history on this incredible building.
Mr.Pink
Having lived in the area for a number of years earlier in my life I know the lay of the land around the church quite well. The church is sited on bank top around 6feet from the main road which intersects at the church with 2 other roads that are very popular cut throughs for taxis and locals that know their way about. The area is pretty downtrodden and a hotspot for heroin addicts and prostitutes who patrol the area looking for business..so in the evening when all the "normal folk" retire to bed this place comes alive with ladies of the night, smack heads scoring their gear and police vans patrolling and stopping anyone(that's everyone) who looks dodgy.
We look dodgy! Walking up and down the road past the ladders when on the rare occasion a car or person is not within a hundred yards of the church.
The ladders are facing the busy main road around six ft away and conveniently lit up by a street lamp for the first thirty ft, the bottom section of the ladder is missing so after a quick plan is hatched and a way up is agreed, I stand in the shadow of one of the columns as a drunken couple stumble up the street, as they draw level to my position the toothless lady looks right at me and jumps out of her skin "fuckin hell you shit me up" she says, the fellow with her looks me up and down and I wonder how the fuck he's going to react to me startling the beautiful toothless creature he is with..... I've a harness on and a big coil of rope in my hand and im stood in the shadows, "alright.?" I enquire..."hiya mate " he returns and they carry on their way talking about what the fuck I'm up to, they hang around at the top of the street watching for a while.
Less than every 20 seconds, a vehicle goes past, the police have been past numerous times and done a pnc check on a youth outside the church..
A few deep breaths and I resign to just have a go, no time for ascending gear I part hand and fist up the rope, part urban free climb the features till my grubby palm slaps satisfyingly onto the bottom rung and I'm away.
StoneMonkey
As soon as mr pink gets on the ladders I start to ascend the features and rope, we had put in place to assist ascent, hand over hand but as soon as I pull down mr pink shouts to me not to come up as he could really feel my weight pulling down so I terminate the ascent… this time but theres cars coming, and more cars so I hide out of the way round the corner in the dark shadow then another cars coming down the side road… shit!! I casually walk across the road in my harness and hide away till the coast is clear. Right, all is quiet so I start making my way to the ladders and again I was thwarted with traffic! Another break in traffic and I get on the ascent, grabbing the rope and urban climbing…. Oh boy was this cool… but tiring not using any ascending gear, no time to check for activity at this point so I just went for it till I got on the ladders and up above the street lights, ahh that’s better, had to stop as a few more cars drove past then plain sailing up the ladders for 60/70 feet to the belfry… (no rope) till I meet mr pink sort of wedged between the steeple and a corner turret as there was bearly room for the two of us to get too comfy, how do we say to each other and have a quick giggle that after an hour and a half or more of having to retreat due to cars, this was a relief to be out of sight, we both set about taking pictures of sorts.
looking down from the belfry
views
2 blue things in the sky
View attachment 644360
Mr Pink
So here we are without incident more or less on the belfry, room is very tight and we chill for a moment before we go up the steeple which from here looks bloody amazing, the full moon has illuminated the very top of the ladder and the weather vane.
Mr pink has a smoke and watch the junkies, prostitutes and pissheads stumble up and down the street, people watching from such a position is fascinating.
We are now surrounded by the decorative stone finials and columns of the belfry, completely in the shadows we know we are out of site and the job is in the bag as long as we don't fall off..the cameras come out and some mediocre shots are taken before I get bored and grab hold of the steeple ladder..."I'm off....see you shortly"
Stonemonkey
Mr pink shoots off up the very inviting steeple ladders so I set about taking shots as he goes on his way, these ladders arnt exactly inline with the steeple, they kind of kick out abit in sections and they were held away from the steeple by spaceing brackets, which gives a little mor exposure for sure. Mr pink finally arrives back down to the belfry, I think he was up there a while, I couldn’t tell you as I was too busy taking shots while he was out of site. Next up…. Stonemonkey…. WOW! The feel of going up the steeple to the very top was awesome, probably coz we love this shit but the views and exposure grew and grew till I was at the top! I know I was up there for a fair bit taking shots and it felt good, slightly scary but good! Got some shots and came down. Buzzin, we giggle abit about what we have both done and decide we are going to abb off. I dropped a line down the side away from the road (the dark side/corner) we used to hide but I couldn’t see the rope hit the floor so we wernt sure if it was down, mr pink drops it off the front to check its hit the floor as the front is well lit, yep its down, we chuck it back over the dark side ready for the abb.
weathervain
from the top of the steeple
stonemonkey going up.
MrPink
As I see that stone monkey is returning back down to the belfry I start to sort out the rope for the abseil off, it's pitch black and as is typical the bastard rope is kinked and knotted up but I daren't put a lamp on so struggle on. Stone monkey is on the bottom ladder now and makes a few exasperated exclamations about his recent experience up at the pointy end with the weather vane.
Having sod all else to anchor the ab rope onto I thread it through a few rungs of the ladder, now I'm not 100% happy about this as it will be pulling out and not at the usual down the way the ladder is designed to resist weight...there are no options and with a few nervous looks at each other and some words of caution from stonemonkey I clip in and very gently abseil the first few feet before thinking the longer I'm on this line the more risk there is...and so Abandon caution and let the line slip through as fast as I could...boom....my feet hit the floor and another fine job is ticked.
Stonemonkey
Mr pink is now down on the ground, im there on my own, not a problem, I take the back up sling off, im not leavin one of my slings up there, sod that, and start the abb trying to be as smooth as I can, didn’t take long till I was near the floor and had to stop while mr pink took some more shots, down we sorted gear, ropes etc and took a selfie (as you do) lol and headed off back. All in all a nice little job that!
Stonemonkey and Mr pink
Photos are from both ourselves.
nice pics too
