18: Tearing Down the Chimneys
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Stop. There on your right.
Go to the spiked black fence.
You are miniature against this monument.
A brick giant.
Bricks upon bricks.
A legacy.
At the top, time shows signs of reclaiming the chimney.
Knotweed taking hold of one of Manchester’s most historic buildings.
The world’s oldest steam powered cotton mill.
Still standing.
I remember a Saturday as a young girl, being brought into Ancoats by my father, to see the great towers being brought down. I must have been 6 or 7. It was brilliant. I’d never seen anything like that. But people turned out to watch, to see the area raised to the ground. As a little girl it was a thrill watching as those chimneys came crashing to the ground.
A skyline forever changed.
Monuments erased.
The area changed again, as it always does.
Jan: We went, I think it was on a Saturday morning with my Dad, and my Gran and Grandad. We went to watch the big tower chimneys bring knocked down, it was brilliant. I must have been about, probably six or seven.
Keep walking.
