00:00:00 My name is William Brand. I work for Pendrich Height Services and I’m the contracts manager for the lightning conductor division, basically with steeplejacks working at heights. Every building and tall structure they’re on, they’re also on a lightning conductor system, so therefore they have a separate division specialises in the lightning conductor area which protects the buildings from lightning.
00:00:27 I left school round about 16 and my first thing I went into was motor mechanics which was a YTS scheme. First time I ever heard of lightning conductors was within the YTS centre. Basically this company was looking for someone to go out and say do an apprenticeship in lightning protection and I think there were about five lads at that time all interested and see what it was about and we all found it quite interesting because none of us know, or knew what lightning protection was. So, five of us went out, went to put ourselves forward to do the placement of a week each.
00:01:09 Out the five, the five people I was the first to go out with the company to go out to site so I got picked up in the morning from my house and went straight to a building site and that was my first time on a building site as well. I just really enjoyed it. You’re out in the open, it’s not, we’re moving...we're travelling from job to job and it wasn’t as if you’re stuck in the one place.
00:01:30 I continued my going from a boy learner to an adult learner, went through all the different roles of lightning protection because a vast amount of work and involvement affecting a lightning conductor is really, it’s massive. Once I continued my role doing that, I found that it was on a lot. It was on low level type buildings. The steeplejack side of the business offered me a way to get to a church spire and fit a whole new lightning conductor system, for instance.
00:02:00 And I think the days when I wanted to go up to these heights, the very first time it came to me was when we went to, it was a site down south called High Marnham. Me and my foreman at the time had to drop some stuff for other steeplejacks and when we arrived on site at the bottom of these two four hundred foot chimneys, we're looking up at these ladders all the way up there, I mean, I couldn’t believe there were guys who used to climb up these and work up there and we had a joke about it with me and my foreman. He says to me, “I bet you wouldn’t go up there,” and I says, “I bet you I would.”
00:02:40 And it was after that I realised, you know, I would. There's something in there [again] you would like to go up there and see what it was like and also it was a challenge. I think it was a challenge that drove me. The company as a whole had the lightning conductors and had the steeplejacking division and I asked to get moved then to the steeplejacking division and then take it through there. You just start off with the load beltings and then maybe try you out with a heights test with maybe 60 foot, 100 hundred foot and then you’d start gaining confidence then you get an opportunity to come in and maybe have your first 200 hundred foot chimney to climb and then, you know, that is nerve wracking but if you get up it and you’ve got the confidence then you manage to get up these. So, it's sort of an achievement getting to the top here. Once you get over the top normally you’ve got jelly legs, you're shaking but once you’re up and on you feel good. You feel absolutely fantastic.
00:03:36 I was really glad I done if after it was over, it's been absolutely fantastic. The areas, the places I’ve worked, the heights I’ve been, we go over to Europe and to Holland where the ground is so flat and you’re maybe up a 400 or 500 hundred foot chimney on a clear day. It’s amazing, absolutely amazing. ENDS
William Brand
William Brand
My name is William Brand. I work for Pendrich Height Services and I’m the contracts manager for the lightning conductor division, basically with steeplejacks working at heights. Every building and tall structure they’re on, they’re also on a lightning conductor system, so therefore they have a separate division specialises in the lightning conductor area which protects the buildings from lightning.
I left school round about 16 and my first thing I went into was motor mechanics which was a YTS scheme. First time I ever heard of lightning conductors was within the YTS centre. Basically this company was looking for someone to go out and say do an apprenticeship in lightning protection and I think there were about five lads at that time all interested and see what it was about and we all found it quite interesting because none of us know, or knew what lightning protection was. So, five of us went out, went to put ourselves forward to do the placement of a week each.
Out the five, the five people I was the first to go out with the company to go out to site so I got picked up in the morning from my house and went straight to a building site and that was my first time on a building site as well. I just really enjoyed it. You’re out in the open, it’s not, we’re moving...we're travelling from job to job and it wasn’t as if you’re stuck in the one place.
I continued my going from a boy learner to an adult learner, went through all the different roles of lightning protection because a vast amount of work and involvement affecting a lightning conductor is really, it’s massive. Once I continued my role doing that, I found that it was on a lot. It was on low level type buildings. The steeplejack side of the business offered me a way to get to a church spire and fit a whole new lightning conductor system, for instance.
And I think the days when I wanted to go up to these heights, the very first time it came to me was when we went to, it was a site down south called High Marnham. Me and my foreman at the time had to drop some stuff for other steeplejacks and when we arrived on site at the bottom of these two four hundred foot chimneys, we're looking up at these ladders all the way up there, I mean, I couldn’t believe there were guys who used to climb up these and work up there and we had a joke about it with me and my foreman. He says to me, “I bet you wouldn’t go up there,” and I says, “I bet you I would.”
And it was after that I realised, you know, I would. There's something in there [again] you would like to go up there and see what it was like and also it was a challenge. I think it was a challenge that drove me. The company as a whole had the lightning conductors and had the steeplejacking division and I asked to get moved then to the steeplejacking division and then take it through there. You just start off with the load beltings and then maybe try you out with a heights test with maybe 60 foot, 100 hundred foot and then you’d start gaining confidence then you get an opportunity to come in and maybe have your first 200 hundred foot chimney to climb and then, you know, that is nerve wracking but if you get up it and you’ve got the confidence then you manage to get up these. So, it's sort of an achievement getting to the top here. Once you get over the top normally you’ve got jelly legs, you're shaking but once you’re up and on you feel good. You feel absolutely fantastic.
I was really glad I done if after it was over, it's been absolutely fantastic. The areas, the places I’ve worked, the heights I’ve been, we go over to Europe and to Holland where the ground is so flat and you’re maybe up a 400 or 500 hundred foot chimney on a clear day. It’s amazing, absolutely amazing. ENDS
William Brand is the Contracts Manager for lightning conductors at Pendrich Height Services. He applied to be trained in lightning protection without really knowing what it was, but enjoyed being out in the open. He then discovered he got a buzz from working at heights, so the job got even better.
External links
Sector Skills Council for the Construction Industry
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