It's a towering achievement.
A 64-year-old man has power-lifted the entire weight of a Huddersfield church tower - to help fund its repairs.
Glenn Stewart, company director of a software firm, is a former churchwarden at St Stephen’s Church, Lindley, and set himself the challenge of raising over £1,000 for repairs to the bell tower.
He completed the challenge in 13 weeks by lifting 40,000 kilos each week, making the cumulative lifted weight over 500,000 kilos or 500 tonnes – the weight of St Stephen’s Bell Tower itself.
An architect friend, Bernard Ainsworth, estimated the weight of the tower without the bells.
It’s also the equivalent of at least three blue whales, or more than 30 elephants - comparisons used by Glenn to inspire his efforts in a special dialect poem he wrote.
Since completing ‘The Tower of Strength’ challenge he has raised almost £2,000.
Glenn, of West Street, Lindley, got into power-lifting when he was 40.
“I was working on a project at Bradford University and saw these older gys in a gym.
“I asked what they were doing and was hooked. Now it’s a constant and I have my own i industrial-strength gym at home.
“I was lifting 40,000 kilos per week and I kept a track of the cumulative weight and found objects which the children at church could relate to.
“By the first week of the challenge I had lifted the weight of five double decker buses, by the tenth week I had lifted the weight of The Statue of Liberty and by the end of the challenge I reckon I had cumulatively lifted the approximate weight of two and a half blue whales, or the weight of St Stephen’s Bell Tower”.
The money that Glenn raises is going towards St Stephen’s repair project, named ‘Building for the Future’.
Glenn added: “ I am now training regularly above the world records for my age. I hold two unofficial world records for bench press and squat for my age.”
Glenn was the churchwarden of St Stephen’s for 17 years and began the ‘Tower of Strength’ challenge with a Yorkshire dialect poem that he wrote, motivating himself through the challenge.
The church’s repair project, named ‘Building for the Future’, has been partly funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The Rev Rachel Firth, vicar of St Stephen’s Church, said the project will end up costing at least £250,000.
“It’s a key priority for Heritage Lottery Funding that the investment of public money in any building benefits as many people as possible in as many ways as possible”.
This is the Yorkshire dialect poem that inspired Lindley weightlifter Glenn Stewart.
Tower O’Strength
In ‘uddersgate, famed for its weather
Up north weir it’s borin’ and slow
Lives a strongman called Glenn Stewart
‘e lifts big weights reight high and reight low
He’s set issen ‘ter lift yon tower
Weir t’ bells ring aht nah and then
Ter call fowks t’t worship is what they’r fer
An they stop people going rand t’bend
Now t’t bell tower’s a mighty construction
‘ahr Bernard sais usin’ t’ times table
Weighs 500 tonnes na more
‘an Glenn mabe’ll lift it, if ‘es able
In t’ gym each week Glenn recons
‘e’ll lift 40,000 kilos er more
An just ta mak sure that ‘e doesit
They shut and padlock t’ door!
Each week t’ lad’ll tell yer ‘is total
‘ov horses, an elephants an buses
An ‘e’s gorra carryon doin it
Till 2 ½ Blue Whales ‘e pushes
Wi ‘is arms an legs a kimbo
Wi grunts, an pants, an blushes
‘e’ll carry on this monstrous feat
Till t’ blood to ‘is head it rushes
Nah, tha’s got ter do thi part
An ‘elp ‘im fer t’tower, ter raise t’cash
And then, when ‘es done ‘is haif million
In t’t Community Rooim we’ll come, an ‘av a bash