Video shows a lightbulb being changed - 400FT in the air on top of a cathedral spire.
Gary Price climbed the outside of the UK's tallest church spire to change its lightbulbs.
Clerk of Works at Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire, Gary ascended the 404ft spire to change the four aircraft warning lights after the six-year-old bulbs on the south side failed.
After strapping into harnesses, Gary and helping hand Richard climbed 332 steps to the roof, before climbing a series of medieval ladders to reach the "weather door" - a small opening leading out to the dizzying drop.
The final 30-ft stretch required Gary to climb on the outside of the spire, using metal rungs to reach the lightbulbs at the top of the structure.
Gary Price climbed the outside of the UK's tallest church spire to change its lightbulbs.
Clerk of Works at Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire, Gary ascended the 404ft spire to change the four aircraft warning lights after the six-year-old bulbs on the south side failed.
After strapping into harnesses, Gary and helping hand Richard climbed 332 steps to the roof, before climbing a series of medieval ladders to reach the "weather door" - a small opening leading out to the dizzying drop.
The final 30-ft stretch required Gary to climb on the outside of the spire, using metal rungs to reach the lightbulbs at the top of the structure.
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FunTranscript
00:00Hello, my name is Gary Price and I am the Clerk of Works of Salisbury Cathedral.
00:07I've come in early today because my task for the day is to climb to the top of Salisbury
00:15Cathedral's spire and change the aircraft warning lights at the top of the spire.
00:22There's four of them.
00:24The south side has failed, the lights have been in there for six years so they've come
00:28to the end of their life, so I'm going to go up and replace all four.
00:33So we're all harnessed up, ready to go, we're just walking through the cloisters.
00:38I've got Richard here, he is going to be staining the weather door whilst we're up there and
00:45also giving us a hand to change the bulbs and remove one of the old wind speed meters.
00:53So, we're just going up the first spiral staircase, I'm huffing because I've got a heavy pack
01:04on and there's a hundred-odd steps and we're just going into the naive roof space here.
01:18Our staircase is getting even narrower now, I'll just show you where my feet are, so this
01:28is the narrowest staircase that we have.
01:32So, I'm at the top of the tower now, 332 steps from the ground or 220 feet and we've still
01:50got another 184 feet to go via ladders inside the spire.
02:04This is one of the ladders and we have fall arrest rope protection going all the way up
02:13on each ladder until we get to the top.
02:18So, I'm right at the top of the spire inside, I'm just ascending the final ladder, pulling
02:27up all my safety equipment and I will clip to this rope in a minute, I just want to give
02:32you a view from below.
02:38Do you want to reach around here mate?
02:48There?
02:49Yeah.
02:50Yeah.
02:55Wow, look at the view from here, it's amazing.
03:07So, you see the difference in stone here, this is our local stone, Chilmark, this is
03:13actually stone from Leicestershire I think, it's called Clipsham from the Isle of Rutland,
03:20this was up here in the 1950s, so this is the starting point, all the stone above was
03:26replaced between 1949 and 1951.
03:38So, we just opened this one up here and replaced it, Arthur's just done doing that one now,
03:58you see below me Richard's painting the weather door with linseed oil, just to give it a little
04:05bit more longevity.
04:06Yeah, we'll just take that off, can you keep coming up now mate?
04:15Windy up here Rich?
04:18Yeah.
04:19Lovely.
04:20Good.
04:21Here we are again.
04:22Yay!
04:23I'm glad I have all my three musketeers on the top of the spire.
04:30I'm coming in now.
04:33Yeah.
04:35Just looking at all the marks left by craftspeople in here, look 1990, there's 1951 there look,
04:46that was when they repaired the top 50 feet of the spire.
04:50Someone's had enough up there haven't they?
04:53Oh yeah, 1925.