MANY thanks for the article 'Gone but not forgotten' by Frank Wood, (BEN: Wednesday, July 5) and the heading -- Seeking to save some of the remaining chimneys.

My contribution is as follows: spare a thought for those who were physically employed in the construction of factory chimneys. Namely the bricklayers and labourers; without the latter a building project would grind to a halt -- it being difficult to convey in words the sheer hard graft involved.

First of all the excavation for the foundation. At Barrow Bridge, for example, something akin to the start of a pit shaft and the stepped brick footing a miniature pyramid -- the bricklayer bent double at this stage of the work.

Afterwards, as the superstructure ascended, hoisting bricks and mortar onto the scaffold formed within the chimney itself, coupled with the skill of laying the bricks in a circular or octagon plan. Only for a short time would the bricklayer work upright, but still having to bend to pick up bricks and mortar. The design of such chimneys was usually carried out by specialists familiar with such work, which took into account the nature of the industry for which they were erected and also the necessary calculations to determine stability in relation to wind pressure, including the size of flues (Barrow Bridge 12 foot diameter, 13 Lancashire Builders, source F Dibnah).

The bricklayers would be specialists in their own right, needing a head for heights, for all obvious reasons, and having, on laying the first course of the chimney proper, marked plumbing points, especially if circular.The width of the brickwork was reduced at intervals, giving by and large a rentinal flue from top to bottom. Thus were such monuments to the bricklayers' craft erected. One shouldn't forget the other trade involved -- the steeplejack, without whom such monuments would not be preserved -- a far more hazardous occupation.

T T Riley

Dixon Street

Bolton