The nearest town to me, Chesterfield, is famous for it's church having a crooked spire - originally I presumed it was poorly seasoned wood, and warped - but apparently it was due to replacing the original wooden shingles with slate, the extra weight warped it.
Anyway - the reason for mentioning this - just across the road is the Chesterfield museum, and they have an old hoist/crane that was used to build the spire, it was found still in situ where it had been for hundreds of years. Esentially it's a human sized hamster wheel, and someone would walk inside it to lift heavy items up the spire.
Here are pictures of the church, and the hamster wheel!