There is a much told tale of Glasgows World Record tallest chimney and what and where it was. It is generally referred to as Tennants Stalk , or Rollox Stalk, and the matter left at that. However this chimney was the tallest from its completion in 1842 until an even taller chimney was built close by in 1859. Having the two tallest chimneys so close by has caused confusion when the height is stated and what chimney is being referenced.
Charles Tennant Wikipedia
"The huge chimney known as the St. Rollox Stalk aka Tennant's Stalk towered over everything. It was a well-known landmark around Glasgow. Built in 1842, it rose a majestic 435.5 feet (132.7 m) in the air. It was 40 feet (12.2 m) in diameter at ground level.[7] In 1922 it was struck by lightning and had to be dynamited down, but until that time it was in daily use.""Guide to the Glasgow to Edinburgh Railway" , John Wilcox, 1842, Page 95
"the huge towering chimney of St Rollox, a stupendous work, as yet only in progress, but sufficiently extensive to command the wondering gaze of every passeresby. It is to be four hundred and twenty feet in height, and is fifty feet in diameter at the base. ""Commercial enterprise and social progress, or, Gleanings in London, Sheffield, Glasgow and Dublin", JD Burn , 1858, Page 117
"Turning our eyes to the north-east, we are confronted with the mammoth stalk, whose altitude is 450 feet, with a base of 50 feet, and 9 feet 6 inches over the top. This huge monster is continually pouring his sooty treasures into the region of the clouds.""Popular traditions of Glasgow; historical, legendary and biographical" , Andrew Wallace , 1889, Page 165
"St. Rollox, or, as it is more familiarly called, " Tennant's " Stalk, is regarded with more pride by the citizens of Glasgow than any merely ornamental monument in the city. It was erected in 1842, and its measurements are as follows ..."
"It may be interesting to note here the following facts relating to the great rival chimney stalk of Glasgow, erected at Port- Dundas by Mr. Joseph Townsend in the years 1857-8-9 : — The foundation consists of thirty courses of brickwork, the lowermost course 47 feet in diameter, the uppermost 32 feet 6 inches in diameter. The height above the foundation is 454 feet. The diameter at the base is 32 feet, and at the top 13 feet 6 inches. A 9-inch lining built inside, distinct from the chimney, with a space between the walls, is carried up to a height of 60 feet. It will thus be seen that Townsend's stalk is the higher of the two""The Anecdotage of Glasgow" , Robert Alison , 1892 , Page 341
"Who, in and around Glasgow, does not know that characteristic local landmark, Tennant's Stalk, which is now of fifty years' standing, as the centre of an immense chemical industry ? Yes, the gigantic chimney, familiar by its name to the ears and in the mouth of every denizen of Glasgow, and familiar also, as an ever conspicuous object, to their eyes,"How tall was it?
Tall enough that children in a school were scared it could fall on them.
History of St. Rollox School, Glasgow: Together with Memorabilia of Same ", Hugh Aitken Dow , Page 89
"The proximity of the old school to Tennants' chimney, or ' stalk ' as it is locally called, frequently gave rise to not a little disquietude in the minds of the scholars, when the equilibrium of the towering pile was threatened either by severe gales or thunderstorms. It is a fact, presumably patent to all residenters in St Rollox, that, during the prevalence of high winds, the chimney sways perceptibly."Although if this image shows the chimney relative to the school it is understandable
It is mentioned in novels; "White heather", William Black , 1885
"From Dixon's fire-wreaths to Rollox stalk,and parody poems
Blow, south wind, and clear the sky,
Till she think of Ben Clebrig's sunny slopes,
Where the basking red-deer lie."
The Bon Gaultier Ballads ,William Edmondstoune Aytoun , Page 181, this edition 1864
Sank the chimneys from the town, amid the clouds of vapour brown
No longer, like a crown,
O'er it rolled
. Sank the great Saint ollox stalk, like a pile of dingy chalk
"Saint Mungo's bells; or, Old Glasgow stories rung out anew" , A. G. Callant , 1896 , Page 179
"St Rollox Chemical Works (Messrs Tennant, Knox, & Co.), for making sulphuric acid, chloride of lime, soda, soap, c., are the largest of the kind in the world, and employ twelve hundred hands. The chimney, built in 1843, cost £12,000, and is 455 feet high. Townsend's is still higher.Can we find out more about Townsend's Chimney and why it appears to get ignored in many post 1859 books?
"How to straighten the Worlds Tallest Chimney ( 1860) "
"“The tallest chimney was built at Port Dundas, Glasgow, Scotland, 1857 to 1859, for F. Townsend. It is the highest chimney in the world, (454 feet,) and one of the loftiest masonry structures in existence. It is, independent of its size, one of the best specimens of substantial, well-made brickwork in existence.”-September 8, 1895, Page 17, The New York Times Archives"
"The structure turns up in this delightful illustration of the world's tallest structures in Rand, McNally & Co.'s Universal Atlas of The World. Edition 1896 (as #7):"
The height mentioned in the St Mungos passage is consistent with the mistating of the heights.I guess everyone just copied from the same source and never fully checked.
J R Hume 1974 in the fantastic "The Industrial Archaeology Of Glasgow" and quoted on Canmore
"At one time the works was renowned for 'Tennant's Stalk', a chimney 455.5ft [138.9m] tall, built 1841-2 and demolished in 1922."Ian Jack, Granta, 2021
"In Glasgow at that time, what the name Tennant mainly evoked was a memory of height. ‘Tennant’s Stalk’ had been demolished in the early 1920s, but books of city history recalled it as a marvel, a chimney that at 455 feet and 6 inches tall stood higher than any other man-made structure in the world when it was completed in 1842 "Jack quotes the German travel writer Johann Georg Kohl and his wonder at the "improbable" height. We can start to see where the mistakes regarding the height were started early on In his "Travels in Scotland" ,1849, Page 19-20
"I was told its height was 450 feet.As this, however, appeared to me improbable, I determined to satisfy myself of the fact on the spot and my first walk in Glasgow was to " Tennant's Stalk" as the Glasgow people call it."
"On the spot, I was told, that the height is 435 feet "
Some actual information
"Tall chimney construction; a practical treatise on the construction of tall chimney shafts" , Bancroft, Robert M; Bancroft, Francis J , 1885
Page 11
Page 33
( The chimneys were also built approx 50 m above sea level )
Glasgow City Archives tweeted pictures of the Townsend Chimney;
( NB the differences in the buildings in the foreground of the left image and on the left in the right hand image especially the smaller square chimney )
The Townsend stalk is marked on contemporary Ordnance Survey Maps ( LINK ) ;
An earlier 1857 Ordnance Survey map has the height wrong ( LINK )
For a period of the late 1800's the two tallest chimneys in the world were 1000m apart in Glasgow. An adventurous person could have taken a canal cruise between them ( LINK )
It is an easy mistake to make
GMRC Charles Edward Stewart "Townsends Stalk"
( Updated July 19th 2021. Found the newspaper articles about the Tennents Stalk collapse and demolition. Tennant Chimney Collapse Post )
I am still not sure when they were demolished as i think the accounts mix them up. I know the Tennants chimney was reduced in height over the years and was 90 feet when it was demolished probably in 1922.
This Glasgow Herald article references a 1922 image at a demolition but not an image of the demolition.
Indications of both chimneys are on the 1909 OS Map.
The Townsend Chimney does not appear on this 1929 Goad Fire Insurance Map and there are other buildings already constructed.
Although the book Fosters Scottish Oddities ( 2010 ) claims that the chimney was demolished in 1927 which is very soon considering the number of buildings in the 1929 insurance map.( It also gets the height incorrect )
(Update July 20 2021 Found an article in The Scotsman and Glasgow Herald of Dec 6 1927 re the proposed demolition so the book is correct if it is demolished in the next 25 days. Had a check and it doesnt look like it was demolished in 1927)
The separate Townsend Chimney demolition post shows why i now think the correct date range is April/May 1928
This July 1922 edition of The Chemical Age refers to the Rollox Chimney but still makes a mistake re the Townsend Chimney. Townsends was always taller. ;
"Members who are familiar with Glasgow will miss a conspicuous landmark owing to the collapse in March last of the chimney at the St. Rollox Chemical Works, known as “ Tennant’s Stalk,’’ which, at the time of its erection 80 years ago was reputed to be the highest chimney in the world. Originally 453 ft. high, this remarkable-structure was only rivalled in height (after it had been shortened) by a chimney at the chemical works of Joseph Townsend, Ltd., Port Dundas."
This follow up post has additional details, for the Townsend Chimney, of the costs, time to build, number of men and bricks. Information about the correction that had to be made after the tower swayed almost 8ft out of perpinducular when nearly complete .
I came across more information and made yet another post as a collection of the odds and ends, mainly references about the Tennants Chimney.
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