Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Hero of the Hour 2021 – Peter Harknett

That 86-year-old steeplejack Peter Harknett has just completed his final job climbing St Giles Church in Horsted Keynes is remarkable

Lancastrian steeplejack and television personality Fred Dibnah MBE (1938 – 2004) endearingly described himself as “just a bum who climbs chimneys” and took the view that Britain had “become a nation of conmen, living by selling double-glazing to each other.” He was witty and wise and this week the Mid Sussex Times reported on a remarkable contemporary equivalent, 86-year-old Peter Harknett.

 

Hero of the Hour 2021 – 86-year-old steeplejack Peter Harknett – That 86-year-old steeplejack Peter Harknett has just completed his final job climbing St Giles Church in Horsted Keynes is remarkable.
Peter Harknett worked as a steeplejack for an astonishing 72 years.
Hero of the Hour 2021 – 86-year-old steeplejack Peter Harknett – That 86-year-old steeplejack Peter Harknett has just completed his final job climbing St Giles Church in Horsted Keynes is remarkable.
Thrice married Fred Dibnah was climbing chimneys for most of his life and of him his mother, Betsy, once remarked: “Everyone said our Fred was a lunatic.” On his death, ITV and Channel 4 newscaster Peter Sissons remarked: “They don’t make them like that anymore.”

Reporting on this steeplejack of 72 years’ last ever job, placing a weather vane he’d re-gilded in 24 carat gold atop of the steeple of St Giles’s church in Horsted Keynes, West Sussex, the paper noted that “Peter and his team re-shingled half of the spire and Peter donated a portion of the value of his re-gilding and repair work to the church.”

 

Speaking of this plucky pensioner’s ‘Action Man-esque’ feat, local churchwarden David Lamb commented:

 

“All of the schoolchildren at St Giles’s Church of England Primary School were out watching him and cheering. On the churchyard side there were a number of parishioners, socially distanced, cheering as well. It was a marvelous day.”

 

Peter Harknett, it transpires, learnt the steeplejack profession at the age of 14 in 1949 and has also worked on the Victoria Tower at the Houses of Parliament and Chichester and Guildford Cathedrals. He also, at one time, worked as a rigger for a travelling circus.

 

Curiously Horsted Keynes itself is believed to be the village where the earliest known cricket match was played in August 1624 and it is a place where John F. Kennedy stayed just two months before he was assassinated. The area is described by Wikipedia as having been “known for its iron industry long before the industrial revolution and the coming of the railways.”

 

Matthew Steeples
Matthew Steeples
A graduate of the London School of Economics, Matthew Steeples is a writer and marketing consultant. He conceived The Steeple Times as a media arena to fill the void between the Mail Online, The Huffington Post and such organs as the New York Social Diary in 2012.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

£1 per week Supports The Steeple Times

Help journalism to remain honest & independent. You can make a difference to the world today.

3,573FansLike
2,068FollowersFollow
16,731FollowersFollow
4,962SubscribersSubscribe

Subscribe For DAILY NEWS

Please subscribe, like and share this unique site, it helps us tremendously. The Steeple Times in return will send you an email at noon each and everyday, that we sincerely hope you will enjoy & look forward to seeing in your inbox.

AD
Advertisement

Trending Now

Getting One’s Goat – A Cheesy Conundrum – Goat vs Goats vs Goat’s vs Goats’ Cheese

Matthew Steeples explores conundrum of how to describe cheese made from goat’s milk and shares thoughts of Susie Dent to Alan Rusbridger, Christine Hamilton, Jay Rayner, Matthew Jukes, Mic Wright, Nigella Lawson, Matthew Wright, Tom Parker Bowles and Samantha Markle on goat cheese.

Most Popular Articles

The Phil & Matt Show

Phillip Schofield filmed smoking shisha with his alleged ex-lover Matt McGreevy (and pictured in bed thereafter); another image shows the pair together in photograph...

Was Mucky Minx Meghan Markle A ‘Yacht Girl’ For ‘Randy Andy’?

As author Kirby Sommers suggests that the then Meghan Markle likely spent time with Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein before she met Prince Harry, we again highlight the mucky, murkiness and mendacious manner of this alleged “yacht girl.”

SchofieldLite

‘Politicalite’ suggest Phillip Schofield orchestrated his ‘mass coming out’ after a former ‘This Morning’ runner had gone to the press about a supposed relationship...

Meddling Meghan Markle Expose – Attwood, Hopkins & Steeples

Expose interview with Matthew Steeples by Shaun Attwood and Jennifer Hopkins about the former Meghan Markle watched over 73,000 times in 16 hours since it aired; Steeples condemns hapless Prince Harry and his meddling menace wife.

Ampika Pickston

Oldham born divorcee and former glamour model Ampika Pickston describes herself as “feisty, fun loving and warm hearted”. Now based in Hale Barns, Cheshire...

Justice for James Scurlock

Power of social media proven after senseless killing of James Scurlock in Omaha, Nebraska allegedly by a controversial bar owner named Jake Gardner who has been photographed with Donald Trump.
[td_block_6 custom_title="Most Liked..." sort="popular7"]