Quote:
Originally Posted by Restless
Darwen Tower has a great view on clear days. Can see Yorkshire from up there.
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Now here is a story for you.
Sometime in the '70s when the powers that be didin't quite know what to do with all these things which cost money to upkeep, it was mooted that Darwen Tower might be demolished or possibly sold (remember London Bridge had already been sold to the Yanks). Now in the time-honored tradition of the mischief of Grammar School boys me and B.A. (unfair to name him, let's protect the guilty, but I bet he knows who he is) came up with a plan. Why not offer to buy Darwen Tower in the name of a Yank: Hiram B. Lanski to be precise - a fictitious Texan oil magnate I believe. How to do it and make it seem genuine? My devious mind hatched a plan: write the letter to Lanski giving a return address of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph (after all it had regularly reported the problems the council had in the upkeep of the tower) put the sealed envelope in another envelope addressed to the postmaster of a Texan town with a covering letter buttering him up with our love of American stamps and requesting him to post it back to us. Worked like a charm and the next thing we knew we had a front page (I think) article about this fictitious oil millionaire wishing to save Darwen Tower. Of course nothin was ever herd of it again and somehow me and BA kept schtum. This is the first time I have ever revealed this scam. Doubters can check this in the Telegraph archives. I left school in 72 or 73 and we hatched the plot in Geography lessons so I guess the possible time span covers about 1971 to 1972.
You see, papers, especially local papers are not filled with the brainiest reporters and in fact what they tend to do is follow the nationals: if there is a big riot in London, they look for a small riot in Abbey street: if a helecopter crashes south of the Thames they look for a balsa wood kid's plane that smashed a window on Blackburn Road - you get the picture. Darwen Tower, Texas, oil and a millionaire was too much for them.