Watch as the remaining 4 Stewartby Brickworks Chimneys were demolished Sunday 26th September 2021 in Stewartby, Bedfordshire. Demolitions were conducted by DSR Demolition.
Haha, he would agree this is the best method for these chimneys though as it's not in a built up area. His method of demo'ing brick by brick over months is only needed when they can't be allowed to collapse. Even in his they they would use explosives to demolish if they could.
I'm a caver and I can handle "depths" just fine, with single rope technique for descent and ascent of pits, deep underground, in the dark. I feel confident doing it. Watching what Fred Dibnah did gives me the heebie-jeebies.
@@Mpayne1472There's more to the story; workers cottage and village with all amenities etc. Thats what I'm searching for; a proper in depth documentary.
Thanks for this, very sad to see these fabulous monuments to the skill and dedication men showed in their construction, men who got up each day to go to work to build these, probably months or years of hard dangerous toil and then they are literally gone in a few seconds.
I grew up in Bedford, moved away a couple of years ago and didn't know these had come down. Lots of memories of these chimneys signalling the beginning or end of a journey. I remember walking around Stewart by as a kid and the place always had an orange film everywhere. Sad to see but glad this film exists. For people asking why we aren't using them, the brickworks shut down in 2008, failed to meet emissions standards. Part of the area is now park, the main site will be developed for business and more housing. Thanks for filming and posting this
Curbing production without curbing consumption does nothing for the environment. It just destroys our jobs and empowers governments who don't mind the emissions.
Not really. Most houses nowadays are being made of timber frames and plasterboard with wood siding on the outside walls. Yet, mortgage companies / banks will not mortgage a building unless it is of bricks and mortar.
Remember passing these on the way to see relatives near Bedford. Back then the brickworks were still working and you could see, from the train, the working conveyor belts taking clay to the works from the pits. The pits are just lakes now and yet another industry closed.
The chimneys were leaning and it was a public danger, In the past, efforts were made to attempt to straighten and preserve them but unfortunately it was too dangerous so they were blown up.
I love how though the walls still stand, a forest has been growing inside of what was once the brick factory. I hope a lot of the bricks can be recovered and reused, which is common in many places.
the Most expensives are those we're someone has to Dive for...🙈... this demolition was Not with Intention to Reuse whole bricks... mir for Recycling Material for Road construction
This reminds me of the old Blaster Bates story about 'Big Mick from Connemara' who, having watched him drop a chimney stack in this manner, asked if he had ever considered 'what a grand asset ye might be to a political organisation?' Seems a bit daft though, to destroy these and then erect a replica!
Couldn't it be saved and repurposed in some way? This is our heritage we are destroying. It should be considered just as important as a stately home in the country.
It’s not a river, it’s a pond. At a guess they will be leveling the site, including the pond, partially using the old buildings as fill so they just pushed the bricks in the right direction.
I would prefer silence to the ultra dramatic, intense music. I had to turn it down. sorry. good footage of the demolition but I enjoy the sound of the explosions and demo work and not the rest of the fluff.
"Implosion" means to blow or collapse in but in this case, it was explosions because the walls of the chimney's were blown outwards so the right term is explosion.
I wonder if the bricks are in good enough shape to be recycled into housing (this was done in Louisville: many of the bricks used to construct houses in 1890 came from the demolition of the Southern Exposition of 1883.)
I've been to the site and seen the bricks, they are larger than regular bricks and also they aren't perfectly square. The bricks also might contain asbestos
I lived in a village near these & saw them on a daily basis as a kid, my grandad worked there too. The day the last ones were felled I had to film them too from high up at houghton house, ( not of your quality tho) I filmed them & put it on RU-vid getting s decent response. A sad day but necessary I suppose.
I hate seeing tall chimneys like these destroyed, they have such a tiny footprint for such majestically tall structures that it always makes me wonder why developers don't just demolish everything else on the site but leave the chimneys intact and build whatever they are building around them, leaving them as landmarks and monuments to the past.
Seems like it didn’t go as planned- Did they really mean for that one stack to go into the pond? For those questioning why demo and then build a replica stack: what makes you think the replica will be the same height? For the preservationists out there, sorry, but this is a rather large property to leave fallow to remind everyone they made bricks. Preservation is not free, it takes money to preserve and make historical structures into tourist attractions - and I dare say a brickworks would make for a dull and expensive tourist attraction that few would visit.
Correct. You usually find preservationists say "They should do this" or "They should do that".... Who "They" are or who is going to pay is conveniently omitted!! Private corporations are not charities, and Gov schemes have to give value to the taxpayers. It's not too easy to preserve this, that, and everything, just because we can!
I can understand the sentiment, or even nostalga, to preserve it. However lets face it, they were stinky, filthy, air poluting places to visit when they were working, Even worse to actually work there. Cant imagine the amount of filthy smoke, grime and dust workers had to endure. But then I am not a fan of old cars either for similar reasons. Even changing my mind on steam locomotives which I used to love. I think the canals are worth preserving though!☺
@@w1swh1 Rail preservation has gone mad. 30, 40, 50, or 60 examples of some mundane classes of steam and diesels are "preserved", many of them rusting away on heritage line sidings. What's worse is enthusiasts celebrate the smoke and the clag... we have to be more responsible and set an example in these days of increasing global warming and climate change. Burning coal in outdated machines is not good.
@@PreservationEnthusiast The coal fueled steam locomotives that remain in working order are few, and rarely run - I have no issue with the enthusiast for bringing them out occasionally.
@@w1swh1 Classic cars are seldom driven. Soon enough petrol powered cars will be banned from several major cities - the only way they will be able to enter is on a trailer.
indeed it was. It was part of the London Brick Company and used Lower Oxford Clay which has a high carbon composition which allowed for lower kiln temperatures. At its peak, it was the most productive brick manufactory in the world and produced 20% of all bricks in Britain
There used to be 30+ of those chimneys. After WWII a heck of a lot of Italians came to Bedford to work in those brickyards. The Italians were later replaced by a vast number of Asians I believe mainly from Pakistan.
Well done video- but PLEASE heed the comments : your viewers DO NOT want to listen to a music soundtrack, they would much rather hear the sounds of the demolition, or even the drone, than music!
They did. All bricks on site were marked LBC standing for "London Brick Company", Some of the buildings have different brand bricks, probably the original buildings before the production line was up.
In my heart I was hoping they would leave the last one standing.But alas progress for yet another housing project I guess.Theres no room left in the world for ludites like me.
Wow, what an impressive yet at the same time sad sight. Last time I saw them was when I was working for a few months on the new upgraded A421 link road between Bedford and the M1. Some landfill activity was still going on, though by that time it was a hill, not a hole in the ground they were tipping on.
Any 4k drone video of demolition gets my sub, well done! I would gladly fly one of my 5" drones and give you the video card just for the opportunity to fly a demo project.