Report - The Victorian Square Church (Climb), Halifax - October 2012.

[Ojay]

The Victorian Square Church, Halifax

Ojay/Stepping Lightly

Built by Joseph James in 1856–58 and funded by the Crossley brothers - John and Sir Francis, of Dean Clough (Carpet Manufacturers)

The church closed in 1969 and was largely destroyed by fire in 1971 and partially demolished in 1976

All that remains is its original 235 ft (71.5m) tower and steeple currently under restoration and preserved, being a Grade II Listed Building

(at the time of construction the second tallest in Yorkshire), which still stands behind the Piece Hall as one of Halifax's most recognizable landmarks

Original restoration attempts were thwarted In March 2005 when it was suspected that rare birds, possibly kestrels were nesting there

An 18-year-old apprentice, Anthony Finnigan, claims to have attempted to take a photo of the birds, but when the picture was viewed he was shocked to see it appeared to show a ghostly figure hovering in the darkness (yeah rite)!

Not a lot of history I'm afraid, however this one had been hard earned

After numerous visits and plans of how to scale this 235 ft beast of a steeple with Stepping Lightly, we finally managed to reach the external ladders in the biting cold late one evening, Result!

However it wasn't the top, we had no camera and we were both knackered so I managed to grab a couple of shaky pics off my 10 year old Nokia before we headed backdown...

Itching to scale the full height of the steeple we returned once more to the biting cold to continue where we left off..

In the end the (shit handheld pics) are in-significant really, more a record that we actually pulled this off after months of recces and false starts, massive props to Stepping Lightly


The tower is usually ascended via a spiral staircase for the first 60 ft (sadly no pic)

Then, it's a 50 ft internally rigged steeplejack ladder up past the clock tower and onto some temp scaff planks

A short traverse and a squeeze takes you externally to a narrow ledge some 110 ft up

A further offset set of steeplejack ladders were externally rigged in order to scale the massive steeple that can be seen for miles around

All that remains now is an exposed free climb of 90 ft with a jump across to the final ladder and a further 35 ft upto the summit..

Lit up like an xmas tree and on full view of half of halifax and some track workers below we shot up and grabbed a couple of pics

Finally, the only ghostly figure my camera picked up here, was Stepping Lightly on top of the spire

​

 

[SAt]

Re: The Victorian Square Church, Halifax - October 2012.

Top effort, you nutters!

 

[Horus]

Re: The Victorian Square Church, Halifax - October 2012.

Credit where it's due.

 

[Bugsuperstar]

Re: The Victorian Square Church, Halifax - October 2012.

Thats nice that mate. Well done both!

 

[ZerO81]

Re: The Victorian Square Church, Halifax - October 2012.

Great report there mate, very nicely done

 

[Camera Shy]

Re: The Victorian Square Church, Halifax - October 2012.

Nice one mentalists

 

[Els]

Fab shots mate, wish I had the time...

 

[host]

100% for effort and determination but you would not get me up their.....

 

[dicky21]

pretty sick that.. nice one!

 

[kevin arnold]

looks awesome, another great report

 

[The Lone Ranger]

Quallity report and pics, looks an awsome spire and a very grand view of Halifax

 

[tweek]

Respect!

Wondered who'd do this first. Looked at it after doing Pipemare earlier in the year. Epic achievement that guys.

 

[Ojay]

Spiralling out of control

 

[m9]

Sick. We looked at this a few times earlier this year and never made it. Props!