Why didn't English Heritage buy Fred's home and workshop... Oh too busy rescuing homes of the aristocracy to preserve something that the working class can relate to.... Fabulous bloke and one of my heroes
The rusted steam engine Fred negotiated in the video took him 27 years to restore and he worked on it and completed it right up to after he was diagnosed with cancer. His final 2 years of his life was focused on restoring it. The steam roller was used to pull his coffin, a day where all of Bolton turned up to pay their respects. What an incredible man .
I laughed when Fred said that doing up a traction engine, after his experience with doing the roller, it'd probably only take him 4 years to do. I already knew it had taken him 27 years and was only completed during his illness.
Both the roller and tractor were in freds funeral procession. Betsy the roller pulled his travelling trailer AND his landrover. Freds son Roger travelled on that and the tractor pulled an amazing trailer with freds coffin and ladders- his son Jack was driving that. A businessman called Michael Oliver bought Freds roller in 2011. Sadly his 5 children decided to sell it to shut up Freds final wife, blonde dollybird hag Sheila who he cut out of his will. She was contesting the will so they gave her the £264k proceeds from it. Sheila was a horrible woman who wanted to be 'someone important'. She stopped freds steam and mining friends visiting and tried to change what he wore and what he did. I'm unsure what happened to the tractor after the funeral. The press seem to get confused by it and the steam roller.
This documentary isn't simply the story of Fred Dibnah, but a tribute to an entire era and to the humble men who made it; many of whom didn't live enough to become old.
My own dad included. Loved his machines and was the most clued up fixer ever. Asbestos exposure (for when he was 16) stopped him from getting old in 2016.
Fred talks about working quite comfortably once the corner boards are in place , Why am I holding on to my arm chair with white knuckles just watching him ? What a legend , a real bloke !
Sometimes TH-cam recommends true Gems. German myself, I haven‘t heard of Fred before. But this is all just brillant. Hair-rising work on the Chimneys, but it‘s filmed and commentated totally calm. No dramatizing, no unnecessary music…. And at the beginning of this video, Fred drives by a guy burning old leaves on the roadside. Unthinkable nowadays. All in all, every time I stumble upon old documentaries made in Great Britain I‘m on one hand amazed of the overall quality of it. On the other hand, I‘m a bit confused, because I can‘t think of something similar filmed in germany.
We are all brothers, Germans are fantastic engineers, the world’s best in my opinion, Fred was definitely one in a million bless him, drove me to my occupation and I’ve loved it too 👍 I’m 59 now, still full of steam and ready to go lol 😂
@@carlwilson1772 No, of course not. But I meant this art of filmmaking, in first place, which is truly unique. I found some old short documentaries filmed in Germany in the 60s/70s/80s, which come somewhat close to something like the series about Fred.
In this Fred mentions drilling over 200 holes my hand, I delivered a compressor to his house to power a pneumatic drill that he had borrowed around 1972. This was long before he became famous.I impressed him by reversing the compressor down his steep drive, and I then got the tour of his workshop and a cup of tea. A week later I picked the comp' up, and got the tour and tea again . I thought at the time that he was an extremely interesting bloke. Many years later, on TV he appeared ,sweating, boring the holes by hand with a ratchet drill !!!. More years later I met him at a steam fair and I mentioned the drill ' exaggeration' ??, He said " Poetic licence lad "}. A truly exception man, and sadly missed. ]
FAVORITES he would have drilled the holes with the ratchet drill,how ever in order to close the rivets he would need a compressor for the rivet hammer. It would take some doing with a hammer lol
He had qualities that many don't. His honesty and being a straight talker impressed me. His work ethic should be applauded and held up as a bench mark. The planet is losing all those skills.
I agree with you deep purple, Fred Dibnah was a great man, a brilliant Victorian brain. I wish I could have met him. if you havnt watched " the day Bolton Stood Still " you really should. it was very moving.
you're all wrong, all of the shots where taken from a high lift and all the crew wore harnesses, there is some shots of the crew from a distance showing this, all this while fred, who could have used a high lift to do the work, did not, the man had huge balls.
When he was building the scaffolding I thought at first that he was wearing a harness. Then I realized he's just sitting on a big swing. The fact that cancer is what got him and not accidental death is incredible.
Yea its remarkable he didn't fall walking along those thin platforms bowing like buggery, interesting that his cancer was in his bladder and surrounding areas you would think with the amount of smoking he did and breathing in all that dust from felling chimneys and toxic shit that came out of the chimneys he didn't have lung cancer, i think he's better off where his is I some how thing he wouldn't like the modern world.
@@Megalocade Bladder cancer is essentially from not drinking enough water, which is not a surprise considering his work. And he died in 2004. Surely that qualifies as "modern". Not even twenty years ago.
The amount of smoke's he had in a day while breathing in old tire smoke and probably poking about in asbestos dust all the time, I'm amazed he got as old as he did
@Newsbender II I had a cell phone in 2004. I think my third. You should actually go outside into world rather than fearfully hiding from it. Dibnah wasn’t a coward. Learn from his example.
Of all the people ive seen on the tube this man has to be the bravest person ever. And his knowledge of Victorian England industry is unsurpassed. Real treasure will be missed
The drawings Fred did of Victorian stone work and architectural detailing are absolutely amazing I wonder were they ended up after his death a true genuine working class craftsman,engineer,steeplejack a real different breed of a man
I'm a great admirer of this mans character and the energy he puts into these projects, although I have to laugh at the lack safety gear, just how it used to be. The epitome of northern English working class man, truly the salt of the earth, it was his kind that sweated and worked their fingers to the bone that built this nation to what it is today and don't believe it came from anywhere else!!
@@davidpowell9713 Hello there David, East Anglian working class smallholder who works like a North of England Fred Dibnah,😄 Always go north for holidays, Always love the sounds of brass bands playing gives me a warm glow inside. love the culture and history
When you look up “honest work” in the dictionary, you see a picture of Fred. The best honor you can bestow upon a man is to say there’ll never be another man like him. Watching a color video in 2022 of someone that literally touched standing remnants of the Industrial Revolution such as steam engines and smokestacks is truly an anachronism in action. Our children will one day ask what an engine is.
Started off watching this interested enough. Then when he said “Fred geared down his steam roller to run the machinery…”I knew I would be watching part 2. Truly amazing dude.
The episode where he built the scaffold round the top of a chimney singlehandedly!, Is one of the greatest feats I've ever seen. All done without one single scaffold tube 😯
Nowadays one sees so many people on reality tv, putting on the 'camera act' and just not pulling it off. Fred was so natural, he did not have to try and the camera loved him, as indeed we all did.
I think the reason he can do this so easily is that the pendular effect of his gigantic balls acts as a counterweight when he's precariously balancing out on the edge (rather like the weights you see on helicopter rotors). Unfortunately he missed these out on the drawing he made so it's hard to spot....
You must be joking, I'm in a 5 star hotel in greece sunbathing around the pool for 2 weeks and I didnt have to work anywhere near as hard as Fred did just to feed himself. Good old days my arse. Never ever wish to go back to those days 99.9% of people would die if they had to work a fraction of that hard.
@@caffeineisking8132 sounds nice and relaxing but it doesn't give one's life a sense of purpose and direction.. That's what's missing.. doing a good job, even when it's hard work is good for the soul
It was bloody hard work in those days of simpler exploitation and no H&S on building & demolition sites. The BBC made many films about FD and his amazing trad engineering skills. BBC is a great national institution , in spite of Nadine Dorres , "I'm a celebrity get me out of here whilst being paid as an MP " in pay and beckoning of Murdoch and other pay to view US TV media.
What an absolute treat. Remember Fred on the telly when I was a nipper but watching again now you can really appreciate the skill, the intelligence and bravery of the man.
The generation that is unfortunately passing away. What a man Fred was, I’m 19 year old turning 20 in a few of months and Ive learned more from Fred than I have from any education in this decade. Hard work is what we need in this day and age.
I was born and raised in Manchester, took off for Australia at 21, and married at Yank at 48 and living in the mid west. Northerners have always been hard workers and this guy's strength is amazing. The lack of any harness or safety gear give me butterflies, as I only ever worked a hundred feet off the ground without a harness as a welder, so I can appreciate it even more. Bless his cotton socks.
Yeah mate he was brave to be working at that hight, even if someone knew how to do this type of work all the health and safety people would go crazy if anyone was doing anything like this. I work in construction myself and we have to wear a harness to work any hight off the ground, everything has to have a hand rail and whatever else. Yeah it's changed a lot since this guy was around.
I'm no steeplejack, or anywhere near the caliber of this man, but I have worked in a window cleaning cradle at 550ft among other places, I don't have the balls of this man, but I know why he likes it so high. I once worked a tower in London, level 52 the roof pt1 in a heavy cloud I couldn't see the base of the tower from where I was in Vauxhall. All I could see was canary wharf tower stretching out above the clouds in front of me.
Met Fred about 25 years ago at Claremount Liberal Club in Halifax after giving one of his talks... Bought him a pint and had the best chat ever about everything... I will never forget this or his face light up when I offered to buy hime a Pint, Think It Was John Smiths !
@@loadzofhobbies4219 Too right! Lets hope these videos are available for all until mankind ceases to exist, at least then all the androgynous amoeba's who are taking over the planet can get some idea of what real men were like because there wont be anyone left to call themselves a man if the world keeps going the way it is, im surprised the word man isn't already censored here on yt, being so offensive and all...
The perfectionist he is, when he's doing the drawing of the chimney, on how to put the scaffold planks around it, he draws a line on the end of a plank he missed when he first drew them, even though he finished explaining how he does it!
I'm thankfull to have these videos though I agree with you. Long before the internet my grandfather knew of Fred here in the States just on his reputation alone.
14:00 onwards is just remarkable no money in the world could get me to do that id be clinging on crying and hes swaying about moving planks and walking around like hes on the ground the strength to do that besides the bravery is off the charts ....and this is only the prep work to build the structure before he does whatever needs doing whatever he earned wasnt enough
There is sheer beauty in what this unique man does and how he does it. His attitude and craftsmanship remain unsurpassed. May we always remember and honour all those men, everyone a master in his profession, who keep a country up and running, like the bravest of soldiers, no matter what the obstacles are, always on their post doing their duty.
Fred was a propper bloke not afraid of hard work reminds me of starting out as a labourer on a building site , everything was lifted up or handballed as it was called, up by hods or men staged on scaffolding ...lugging bricks up in a hod up 4 ladders was hard work ...and you would do that trip hundreds of times a day keeping the bricklayers in cement and bricks as well as mixing it ...that was if you wasnt working for the carpenters carrying wood ,doors , knocking holes in the wall with a hole chisel no power tools like i use now as a carpenter, the capenters would then make wooden plugs for the skirting ..arcs door casings ...every day i came home shattered but feeling great , like you really achieved something ......best years of my life ...hard work good mates down the pub on a friday hahaha , now days with power everthing and telehandlers ...the youngens dont know how easy it has become 😲😂👍
Richard Ingle Strip foundations were all excavated with a spit and a shovel, Wimpey never used a JCB if a gang of men could do it by hand, then the concrete was wheeled in to position using a barrow, nine yards of concrete would arrive in the drum of a waggon then tipped in a heap and then it had to be shifted with shovels before it went off, waggons carrying nine thousand facing bricks each would be delivered on site coming all the way from Peterborough, they were not on pallets all of them had to be off loaded by hand, cement in eight stone bags still hot from the factory burnt your back as you stacked it under tarpaulin sheets, curb stones paving stones and drainage pipes were all off loaded by hand, under the watchful eye of the General Forman watching from his cabin window, I was fifteen when I started on a construction site I was a can boy I had to boil water in a cess pot by collecting scrap timber from around the site and making a fire under the pot until it boiled, and if the water was not boiled when the gangs of men came to fill their enamel tea cans I got a beating.
Yep, first job I had after school labouring on a posh office bock in central London, oak doors walked up to the 5th floor. Took days to do a floor. Every flight a fookin nightmare. Then it was the sixth floor. Jeez. The blokes on the site were more interesting than ANYONE on TV now. All amazing characters. Seems like yesterday but it wasn't.
@@richsackett3423 well I mean how am I meant to be proud of Bolton? Even though I admire Fred Dibnah. I know it’s up north which means it probably resembles India more than England 👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️
@@davidpowell9713im from Bolton and proud of of it those brown people you so hate are makin life round Bolton better creating jobs and business and we all get along nicely take your bigotry back to the incest farm you came from
Absolutely amazing. If u asked me if could 1 man do all that 200 feet in the air. id say no, im awestruck and seriously impressed and also i realised my work isnt THAT hard.
"It will only take 4 years for the next one" ... Postscript : His next one took 27 (!) years to refurbish. Alison left him in the mid-80's, and he renamed the engine "Betsy" after his mother.
Have to say...Sir Fred Dibnah is a real inspiration and his videos/life should be shown to school children across the world, not just Britain. His attitude to work and his application of common sense and courage is amazing. I’m sure there were other men and women in Fred’s time who were equally as brave and good as Fred, but I dunno what it is, but Fred has such a lovely aura about him that makes him so loved the world over. Another unsung hero is the cameraman/women who videographed him up the chimneys. RIP Fred, you are one In a million.
Looking at Fred on the scaffolding platform, hundreds of feet in the air, and without a safety harness, makes me realise that not many folk could work at that height! A true working hero!
Then consider a BBC cameraman climbed up there to film him, carrying a 16mm film camera 😮 I doubt there's anyone at the BBC now with the balls to climb a house chimney let alone a factory one.
The legendary Fred Dibnah! The ultimate hard working, skilful and courageous steeplejack. Fred was also an amazing, talented self taught mechanical engineer! He had incredible stamina and he relished every challenge! His TV programmes on buildings, steam and railways were a testament to Fred’s knowledge and a natural ability to communicate his passion on everything which involved construction work and engineering!
I'm a British Pakistani and grew up around the corner from Fred on Bury New Road. We were as much a part of Bolton as Fred was. He knew my parents and was a top bloke us kids used to see him knocking around all the time... He'd have nothing to do with any rascism treated everyone as a friend! Life was tough for us all, like it always has been for the working man in this country. Fred is a true Boltonian, friendly, funny and open minded!
In TH-cam comments the dopey racists are always bemoaning the loss of the good old days when men were men and Britain was Britain. In reality guys like them show up to work and do fuck all, without any creativity or ingenuity. If you've got a negative mentality and blame immigrants you'll have the same attitude at work. If you can't stretch your mind away from simple minded nationalism then you'll bring nothing to your job except clocking in and pushing whatever button your supervisor tells you to. I've seen this first hand. Bigotry shows an inability to think laterally.
British Pakistan? Either you were born in Pakistan or the UK, you are what ever country you live in. Don't be like the silly yank method of calling people African Americans because people are scared to say black or something.
@@-BuddyGuy There are two ways you can answer this, either you are a 20 something and the world is great until you realise people will hate you because you're from the UK or you have no links to the UK other than the paycheck you take home every month. The key thing here is, if you are born in Britain you're British. An ability to push a button with no questions is what made Britain Great. BTW I love fucking with remainers like you, you idle twat.
Fred mentioned that the Chimney swayed in the wind, he would have liked to be on a 600 foot cell tower they move as much as 2 feet. Much respect for Fred!
For the Americans , and a fun fact for our British brothers and sisters; With the pound being stronger than the dollar , my remedial math skills tells me that 2k GBP in 1980 was worth almost 3k USD abouts.
What gets me more is that it was only 15 years since its last boiler examination for the council that owned it.. so it worked until 1967. Buy a wreck now and it’s been out of service for 60 years or more..
I felt sick just watching him on that chair, no safety gear at all just an incredible man probably a one of. He was so interesting from his working chimneys to his engines and then his other tv work. Sadly missed.
i try to remind everyone..heights are gained over the years..no one runs up to the top of any amazing heights overnight..feet by feet one day your very comfortable..start low and grow! RIP Fred
An amazing man, a real man, sadly there aren’t many left. I bought every book that was written by or about. Fred while watching all of his shows on TH-cam. I can’t imagine how he set up his ladders, climbing to this top of some very high smokestacks. I can see it, I just don’t believe what I’m seeing. I know I’d fall and break my ass before I got to 10’. Wherever you are Fred, I wish I’d met you but I doubt you ever got to Phoenix, AZ in your travels, when Blackpool was a once in a lifetime trip for you are the family.
@@bigredc222 And that is what causes their downfall.... I spent time with men of similar ilk, all old school steam era railwaymen. Spent much time inside the firebox of steam loco's,cleaning brick arches and inspecting the fusible plugs and inner firebox, cleaning smoke box's,chopping tonnes of firewood for every light-up and doing wash outs.All hard, hot and dirty work but not something i would change for anything,id go back and do it all again.Young people these days just don't get it, far too concerned with playing video games and trying to get their gentiles sucked.
They all complain about their college loans, when I graduated high school if you couldn't afford to go to college you went to work, you didn't borrow a ridiculous amount of money.
This man was instrumental in my love of 'working at height which started when i was 18 and remember watching the series when it originally aired...i recently retired after ending up building wind turbines offshore 100m + out side of the nacelle getting the lifting bracket off...its dark..no one can see ....harness is a pain in the buttress...lets just stand on top and get the job done....it's what Fred would have done ! RIP Mr Dibnah
I can only imagine the view from up there, I bet it's beautiful. Thanks for uploading this, I'm going to binge-watch the shit out of Fred! I'm 6'10" tall, around 2 meters, and I have a sensible fear of heights. Mainly because I know what it's like to fall and hit the ground.
This brings back so many memories. Fred Dibnah was a childhood staple on our house. Thanks for sharing. I shall be happily ensconced reliving every episode for the next several days, with a Do Not Disturb sign on the door. :)
It seems so long now since I last saw Fred. He had come to a rail side show at Doncaster. His steam engine was up on a trailer with Fred riding it. He looked so very down until I gave him a shout and that seemed to cheer him up a bit. It was good to see him again . R.I.P Fred.
He's on the Raikes Lane incinerator chimney there at Bolton tip. The green ate a as he looks out in the last few minutes is the old greyhound track with Burnden Park a few yards away. Both long gone. Great days.
Why didn't English Heritage buy Fred's home and workshop... Oh too busy rescuing homes of the aristocracy to preserve something that the working class can relate to.... Fabulous bloke and one of my heroes
yeah mate its a disgrace his yard should of been opened as a museum, untouched as he left it
It's a really sad affair that Fred's legacy wasn't preserved
This chap is my absolute Idol
If it had anything to do with sport, it would have been saved from day one.
One his houses is in Bolton near where I live with his workshop and everything. Local let’s people have a look very friendly guy
The rusted steam engine Fred negotiated in the video took him 27 years to restore and he worked on it and completed it right up to after he was diagnosed with cancer. His final 2 years of his life was focused on restoring it. The steam roller was used to pull his coffin, a day where all of Bolton turned up to pay their respects. What an incredible man .
no that was the traction engine that took him on the last journey.
Fred's sons Jack and Roger still have their dad's steam roller
@@eliotreader8220 I stand corrected .
I laughed when Fred said that doing up a traction engine, after his experience with doing the roller, it'd probably only take him 4 years to do. I already knew it had taken him 27 years and was only completed during his illness.
Both the roller and tractor were in freds funeral procession. Betsy the roller pulled his travelling trailer AND his landrover. Freds son Roger travelled on that and the tractor pulled an amazing trailer with freds coffin and ladders- his son Jack was driving that.
A businessman called Michael Oliver bought Freds roller in 2011. Sadly his 5 children decided to sell it to shut up Freds final wife, blonde dollybird hag Sheila who he cut out of his will. She was contesting the will so they gave her the £264k proceeds from it. Sheila was a horrible woman who wanted to be 'someone important'. She stopped freds steam and mining friends visiting and tried to change what he wore and what he did.
I'm unsure what happened to the tractor after the funeral. The press seem to get confused by it and the steam roller.
TA reg was Devon.
When gems like this were on TV we only needed 3 channels lol
This documentary isn't simply the story of Fred Dibnah, but a tribute to an entire era and to the humble men who made it; many of whom didn't live enough to become old.
My own dad included. Loved his machines and was the most clued up fixer ever. Asbestos exposure (for when he was 16) stopped him from getting old in 2016.
Different breed
Fred talks about working quite comfortably once the corner boards are in place , Why am I holding on to my arm chair with white knuckles just watching him ? What a legend , a real bloke !
Sometimes TH-cam recommends true Gems. German myself, I haven‘t heard of Fred before. But this is all just brillant. Hair-rising work on the Chimneys, but it‘s filmed and commentated totally calm. No dramatizing, no unnecessary music…. And at the beginning of this video, Fred drives by a guy burning old leaves on the roadside. Unthinkable nowadays. All in all, every time I stumble upon old documentaries made in Great Britain I‘m on one hand amazed of the overall quality of it. On the other hand, I‘m a bit confused, because I can‘t think of something similar filmed in germany.
🇩🇪🇬🇧
Your English is fantastic !
We are all brothers, Germans are fantastic engineers, the world’s best in my opinion, Fred was definitely one in a million bless him, drove me to my occupation and I’ve loved it too 👍 I’m 59 now, still full of steam and ready to go lol 😂
There were many men like him in Germany I am sure. We are not so different, us and you.
@@carlwilson1772 No, of course not. But I meant this art of filmmaking, in first place, which is truly unique. I found some old short documentaries filmed in Germany in the 60s/70s/80s, which come somewhat close to something like the series about Fred.
5 pints of beer and got to the top of the chimney, I struggle after 5 pints going up stairs. Legend of a man !
I'm lucky if I can find the stairs let alone climb them! Lols
As Fred would say, "You try doing this job sober."
In this Fred mentions drilling over 200 holes my hand, I delivered a compressor to his house to power a pneumatic drill that he had borrowed around 1972. This was long before he became famous.I impressed him by reversing the compressor down his steep drive, and I then got the tour of his workshop and a cup of tea. A week later I picked the comp' up, and got the tour and tea again . I thought at the time that he was an extremely interesting bloke. Many years later, on TV he appeared ,sweating, boring the holes by hand with a ratchet drill !!!. More years later I met him at a steam fair and I mentioned the drill ' exaggeration' ??, He said " Poetic licence lad "}. A truly exception man, and sadly missed.
]
The truly passionate often get 'poetic'. ! :D
In other words he's a liar.
FAVORITES he would have drilled the holes with the ratchet drill,how ever in order to close the rivets he would need a compressor for the rivet hammer. It would take some doing with a hammer lol
what is the point your trying to make.... that Mr Dibnah was a liar... maybe you are the liar
@@raymondo162 no offence but fuck off soft lad.
He had qualities that many don't. His honesty and being a straight talker impressed me. His work ethic should be applauded and held up as a bench mark. The planet is losing all those skills.
I agree with you deep purple, Fred Dibnah was a great man, a brilliant Victorian brain. I wish I could have met him. if you havnt watched " the day Bolton Stood Still " you really should. it was very moving.
Already gone in 2022
@@garethjames1300 ur joking man, they taken it away..Jesus, this world man.
People complained about the youth today probably from the stone age onwards. I am pretty sure honesty is on the rise, prove me otherwise.
@@nilsp9426 Good call on honesty. Lying is much more easily found-out.
Thank you mysterious TH-cam algorithms for suggesting this gem of a series to me
Seems its only the geniuses who get it 🤔😂
100%
@@jofferybezos292 he was far from
Genius , more of an Eccentric.
@@BullyBoxerhow do you know he was “far” from genius? Cuck
Same here
cameraman under represented in showing this legend. some incredible shots and steadiness in terrible conditions hanging from stuff
@@thomasc6412 Except for the copious amount of shots where the cameraman was walking on the wooden staging.
true this. here to remind you bro to rewatch
He is indeed!
you're all wrong, all of the shots where taken from a high lift and all the crew wore harnesses, there is some shots of the crew from a distance showing this, all this while fred, who could have used a high lift to do the work, did not, the man had huge balls.
When he was building the scaffolding I thought at first that he was wearing a harness. Then I realized he's just sitting on a big swing. The fact that cancer is what got him and not accidental death is incredible.
Yea its remarkable he didn't fall walking along those thin platforms bowing like buggery, interesting that his cancer was in his bladder and surrounding areas you would think with the amount of smoking he did and breathing in all that dust from felling chimneys and toxic shit that came out of the chimneys he didn't have lung cancer, i think he's better off where his is I some how thing he wouldn't like the modern world.
@@Megalocade Bladder cancer is essentially from not drinking enough water, which is not a surprise considering his work. And he died in 2004. Surely that qualifies as "modern". Not even twenty years ago.
The amount of smoke's he had in a day while breathing in old tire smoke and probably poking about in asbestos dust all the time, I'm amazed he got as old as he did
@Newsbender II I had a cell phone in 2004. I think my third. You should actually go outside into world rather than fearfully hiding from it. Dibnah wasn’t a coward. Learn from his example.
@Newsbender II ESL much dude? I said you should not be a coward, dumbass.
I could listen to Fred all day. I'm from Lancashire and this series makes me nostalgic for when I was a young fella.
Of all the people ive seen on the tube this man has to be the bravest person ever. And his knowledge of Victorian England industry is unsurpassed. Real treasure will be missed
The drawings Fred did of Victorian stone work and architectural detailing are absolutely amazing I wonder were they ended up after his death a true genuine working class craftsman,engineer,steeplejack a real different breed of a man
Yea hes fred dibnah mate x
@@stecrawley6590 Truly the very last of his kind. Seldom, if any, know this trade like Fred.
No disrespect to Fred but i dont think its bravery. I think he has no fear of heights at all.
@@markymark560 I'd say brave, or crazy. I have no fear of heights, but I'd never do what he does with those chimneys
I'm a great admirer of this mans character and the energy he puts into these projects, although I have to laugh at the lack safety gear, just how it used to be. The epitome of northern English working class man, truly the salt of the earth, it was his kind that sweated and worked their fingers to the bone that built this nation to what it is today and don't believe it came from anywhere else!!
Yeah man...I agree with your sentiments good sir. Its true.
Yet he died of cancer. Respect is the greastest safety system
Don’t happen to be a northern English working class man yourself by any chance do you?
@@davidpowell9713 Hello there David, East Anglian working class smallholder who works like a North of England Fred Dibnah,😄 Always go north for holidays, Always love the sounds of brass bands playing gives me a warm glow inside. love the culture and history
@@christophernunn943 yeah it’s nice up north, well it was before it became Pakistan
When you look up “honest work” in the dictionary, you see a picture of Fred.
The best honor you can bestow upon a man is to say there’ll never be another man like him.
Watching a color video in 2022 of someone that literally touched standing remnants of the Industrial Revolution such as steam engines and smokestacks is truly an anachronism in action.
Our children will one day ask what an engine is.
They'll also ask you what an anachronism is 🤣🤣🤣
Nothing but respect for this great man. Steeplejack to the heavens
Fred must've been as strong as an ox
Every time I watch Fred dibnah I end up watching the whole thing lol
Like a sasquatch coming out the forest. It's always so unexpected
Started off watching this interested enough. Then when he said “Fred geared down his steam roller to run the machinery…”I knew I would be watching part 2. Truly amazing dude.
Lol..reading this comment just as he started that.
The episode where he built the scaffold round the top of a chimney singlehandedly!, Is one of the greatest feats I've ever seen. All done without one single scaffold tube 😯
What an absolute character Fred was ,the world's a poorer place without him.
i have no idea how i stumbled onto Fred Dibnah but i love this guy...They don't make them like they used to.
Nowadays one sees so many people on reality tv, putting on the 'camera act' and just not pulling it off. Fred was so natural, he did not have to try and the camera loved him, as indeed we all did.
I think the reason he can do this so easily is that the pendular effect of his gigantic balls acts as a counterweight when he's precariously balancing out on the edge (rather like the weights you see on helicopter rotors).
Unfortunately he missed these out on the drawing he made so it's hard to spot....
How original 🙄
Yes thanks - certainly more original than 1 year later thinking “durrr that’s original”
🙄
Yes thanks - certainly more original than 1 year later thinking “durrr that’s original”
🙄
@@zchal66 carry on being unoriginal for likes, as you were.
@@zchal66 Also carrying on liking your own comments, pathetic.
I cannot stop watching these episodes of Fred. It makes me wish I'd been born in simpler times.
You must be joking, I'm in a 5 star hotel in greece sunbathing around the pool for 2 weeks and I didnt have to work anywhere near as hard as Fred did just to feed himself. Good old days my arse. Never ever wish to go back to those days 99.9% of people would die if they had to work a fraction of that hard.
@@caffeineisking8132 sounds nice and relaxing but it doesn't give one's life a sense of purpose and direction.. That's what's missing.. doing a good job, even when it's hard work is good for the soul
It was bloody hard work in those days of simpler exploitation and no H&S on building & demolition sites.
The BBC made many films about FD and his amazing trad engineering skills. BBC is a great national institution , in spite of Nadine Dorres , "I'm a celebrity get me out of here whilst being paid as an MP " in pay and beckoning of Murdoch and other pay to view US TV media.
It's to quick a pace now fred wouldn't of fit in how busy the roads are now imagine him holding traffic up these days
You are jonesing to be taken out by some random incurable disease? To each his own I guess.
He was my childhood, loved watching him! Someone who had very very big balls! Anyone else come across this in 2019??
Yeah I have. He had the hardest job on this planet I think.
2020 what a guy he was
What an absolute treat. Remember Fred on the telly when I was a nipper but watching again now you can really appreciate the skill, the intelligence and bravery of the man.
I don't know who picked the music to Fred's series (The flute ) but it seems to fit him perfectly.
The generation that is unfortunately passing away. What a man Fred was, I’m 19 year old turning 20 in a few of months and Ive learned more from Fred than I have from any education in this decade. Hard work is what we need in this day and age.
Well done you fella. My son is 23 and don't give two hoots about it. 👍👍👍
What maturity from a young man! Good luck for the future son
Keep that energy and you can go far
@@chrism4008 Or not. No guarantees, honestly.
@@richsackett3423 I agree
Somepeople say bear grills is one of the bravest men ever. I always answer "i take it youve never watched Fred Dibnah?"
I was born and raised in Manchester, took off for Australia at 21, and married at Yank at 48 and living in the mid west. Northerners have always been hard workers and this guy's strength is amazing. The lack of any harness or safety gear give me butterflies, as I only ever worked a hundred feet off the ground without a harness as a welder, so I can appreciate it even more. Bless his cotton socks.
Yeah mate he was brave to be working at that hight, even if someone knew how to do this type of work all the health and safety people would go crazy if anyone was doing anything like this. I work in construction myself and we have to wear a harness to work any hight off the ground, everything has to have a hand rail and whatever else. Yeah it's changed a lot since this guy was around.
I'm no steeplejack, or anywhere near the caliber of this man, but I have worked in a window cleaning cradle at 550ft among other places, I don't have the balls of this man, but I know why he likes it so high. I once worked a tower in London, level 52 the roof pt1 in a heavy cloud I couldn't see the base of the tower from where I was in Vauxhall. All I could see was canary wharf tower stretching out above the clouds in front of me.
Damn that’s cool!
Met Fred about 25 years ago at Claremount Liberal Club in Halifax after giving one of his talks... Bought him a pint and had the best chat ever about everything... I will never forget this or his face light up when I offered to buy hime a Pint, Think It Was John Smiths !
Just a shame we never got Guy Martin and Fred Dibnah now that would of been a good TV show.ha ha
They would have created an engineering black hole and destroyed more planets than I have bog seats after curries.
Steam powered super bike. And is there a room big enough for both sets of their balls in it at same time
*would have
"would of" doesn't mean anything
Fred was a class act, Guy Martin wanker
Throw Alan Millyard into the mix as well.
Fred was the greatest steeplejack the world has ever seen.
Yes, although he didn’t really have any competition for that title did he? I mean I’m struggling to think of any other steeplejacks 🤔
Scrambling up huge towers
on the outside and taking
those towers down. Playing
games with the reaper for a
living. A very full life
A true hard working legend the balls he had to scale those chimneys beggars belief and to not fall is unreal and never to be seen again rip Fred
@@raymondo162 Dick beating internet troll................................................
Why would you say something like that Raymond ashby
@@raymondo162 how do you know ?
Remember watching fred as a child, im 21 now, he helped me understand what and how a man should be.
Exactly 100000 percent
Absolute legend, and absolute madman. But the cameraman who's up there with him is even more nuts
I don’t think my hands stopped sweating through that whole programme! What a work ethic he had, you can tell he was built for hard graft, what a man
I love and dearly miss this man so very much, it’s so upsetting watching him now.
Me too. When you think of the cowardly mediocrity that gets rewarded in today's corrupt society it's just depressing...
At least we had him. He's left a legacy behind that's for sure.
@@loadzofhobbies4219 Too right! Lets hope these videos are available for all until mankind ceases to exist, at least then all the androgynous amoeba's who are taking over the planet can get some idea of what real men were like because there wont be anyone left to call themselves a man if the world keeps going the way it is, im surprised the word man isn't already censored here on yt, being so offensive and all...
Fred puts a smile on this Chicagoan’s face.
@Randy Bingham Nice 👍🏼 cheers to a couple a pints 🍺 with Fred
Just looked at DM 3079 "Alison" Steam Roller is Taxed and Road Legal!! Fred would be proud.
The perfectionist he is, when he's doing the drawing of the chimney, on how to put the scaffold planks around it, he draws a line on the end of a plank he missed when he first drew them, even though he finished explaining how he does it!
I wish they had put most of his stuff including his scaffold into a museum. He is the best I've ever seen. Legend. Rip Fred 👏👏👏👏
I'm thankfull to have these videos though I agree with you. Long before the internet my grandfather knew of Fred here in the States just on his reputation alone.
legendary wife-beating northern twat
"Raymond Ashby1 week ago
legendary wife-beating northern twat"...ok now you`ve introduced yourself, can you f`cough please Raymond
His house is a museum now as far as im aware with the steam engines and workshop still intact
@@raymondo162 I take it your Boyfriend beats you up ??? Southern oik !
14:00 onwards is just remarkable
no money in the world could get me to do that id be clinging on crying and hes swaying about moving planks and walking around like hes on the ground the strength to do that besides the bravery is off the charts ....and this is only the prep work to build the structure before he does whatever needs doing
whatever he earned wasnt enough
John T couldn’t have said that any better mate. 👍🏼
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There is sheer beauty in what this unique man does and how he does it. His attitude and craftsmanship remain unsurpassed. May we always remember and honour all those men, everyone a master in his profession, who keep a country up and running, like the bravest of soldiers, no matter what the obstacles are, always on their post doing their duty.
Fred was a propper bloke not afraid of hard work reminds me of starting out as a labourer on a building site , everything was lifted up or handballed as it was called, up by hods or men staged on scaffolding ...lugging bricks up in a hod up 4 ladders was hard work ...and you would do that trip hundreds of times a day keeping the bricklayers in cement and bricks as well as mixing it ...that was if you wasnt working for the carpenters carrying wood ,doors , knocking holes in the wall with a hole chisel no power tools like i use now as a carpenter, the capenters would then make wooden plugs for the skirting ..arcs door casings ...every day i came home shattered but feeling great , like you really achieved something ......best years of my life ...hard work good mates down the pub on a friday hahaha , now days with power everthing and telehandlers ...the youngens dont know how easy it has become 😲😂👍
Richard Ingle Strip foundations were all excavated with a spit and a shovel, Wimpey never used a JCB if a gang of men could do it by hand, then the concrete was wheeled in to position using a barrow, nine yards of concrete would arrive in the drum of a waggon then tipped in a heap and then it had to be shifted with shovels before it went off, waggons carrying nine thousand facing bricks each would be delivered on site coming all the way from Peterborough, they were not on pallets all of them had to be off loaded by hand, cement in eight stone bags still hot from the factory burnt your back as you stacked it under tarpaulin sheets, curb stones paving stones and drainage pipes were all off loaded by hand, under the watchful eye of the General Forman watching from his cabin window, I was fifteen when I started on a construction site I was a can boy I had to boil water in a cess pot by collecting scrap timber from around the site and making a fire under the pot until it boiled, and if the water was not boiled when the gangs of men came to fill their enamel tea cans I got a beating.
Yep, first job I had after school labouring on a posh office bock in central London, oak doors walked up to the 5th floor. Took days to do a floor. Every flight a fookin nightmare. Then it was the sixth floor. Jeez. The blokes on the site were more interesting than ANYONE on TV now. All amazing characters. Seems like yesterday but it wasn't.
Complete legend, would have loved to have met him
Makes you feel proud to be from Bolton! What a guy! Absolute legend
What about if you don’t come from Bolton and have never been there? And don’t really know where it is
@@davidpowell9713 Too bad you never learned to use a map in school.
@@richsackett3423 well I mean how am I meant to be proud of Bolton? Even though I admire Fred Dibnah. I know it’s up north which means it probably resembles India more than England 👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️👳🏾♂️
@@davidpowell9713im from Bolton and proud of of it those brown people you so hate are makin life round Bolton better creating jobs and business and we all get along nicely take your bigotry back to the incest farm you came from
Absolutely amazing. If u asked me if could 1 man do all that 200 feet in the air. id say no, im awestruck and seriously impressed and also i realised my work isnt THAT hard.
"It will only take 4 years for the next one" ... Postscript : His next one took 27 (!) years to refurbish. Alison left him in the mid-80's, and he renamed the engine "Betsy" after his mother.
Have to say...Sir Fred Dibnah is a real inspiration and his videos/life should be shown to school children across the world, not just Britain. His attitude to work and his application of common sense and courage is amazing. I’m sure there were other men and women in Fred’s time who were equally as brave and good as Fred, but I dunno what it is, but Fred has such a lovely aura about him that makes him so loved the world over. Another unsung hero is the cameraman/women who videographed him up the chimneys. RIP Fred, you are one In a million.
What a guy! This brings back so many wonderful memories of the time.
I HAD BUTTERFLIES JUST WATCHING HIM
I’ve been binge watching Fred tonight but this is actually giving me anxiety . On a plank that high!? I would die of fear.
BBC production qualities have always been the best I have ever seen.
Beeb not fully appreciated in that regard. Agree with your comment 100%.
Looking at Fred on the scaffolding platform, hundreds of feet in the air, and without a safety harness, makes me realise that not many folk could work at that height! A true working hero!
One in a million
Then consider a BBC cameraman climbed up there to film him, carrying a 16mm film camera 😮
I doubt there's anyone at the BBC now with the balls to climb a house chimney let alone a factory one.
This is the very best of the best
Lest we never forget Fred
Ist time viewed yesterday
Bloody greatness here!
He's a hero to me, Bricky since I was sixteen nothing easy about what he did amazing 👍
The legendary Fred Dibnah! The ultimate hard working, skilful and courageous steeplejack. Fred was also an amazing, talented self taught mechanical engineer! He had incredible stamina and he relished every challenge! His TV programmes on buildings, steam and railways were a testament to Fred’s knowledge and a natural ability to communicate his passion on everything which involved construction work and engineering!
awesome and what a brave cameraman
Fred was an absolute genius in everything he did and such a humble man
He was a great character and I could listen to Him all day . Greetings from Finland . 🧱⚒
I'm a British Pakistani and grew up around the corner from Fred on Bury New Road. We were as much a part of Bolton as Fred was. He knew my parents and was a top bloke us kids used to see him knocking around all the time... He'd have nothing to do with any rascism treated everyone as a friend! Life was tough for us all, like it always has been for the working man in this country. Fred is a true Boltonian, friendly, funny and open minded!
Can you be a British Pakistani? your parents might have a British and a Pakistani passport but if your borne in England then your English,
In TH-cam comments the dopey racists are always bemoaning the loss of the good old days when men were men and Britain was Britain. In reality guys like them show up to work and do fuck all, without any creativity or ingenuity. If you've got a negative mentality and blame immigrants you'll have the same attitude at work. If you can't stretch your mind away from simple minded nationalism then you'll bring nothing to your job except clocking in and pushing whatever button your supervisor tells you to. I've seen this first hand. Bigotry shows an inability to think laterally.
TVsez why do you keep copying and pasting the same comment in all of the Fred Dibnah videos?
British Pakistan? Either you were born in Pakistan or the UK, you are what ever country you live in. Don't be like the silly yank method of calling people African Americans because people are scared to say black or something.
@@-BuddyGuy There are two ways you can answer this, either you are a 20 something and the world is great until you realise people will hate you because you're from the UK or you have no links to the UK other than the paycheck you take home every month. The key thing here is, if you are born in Britain you're British. An ability to push a button with no questions is what made Britain Great.
BTW I love fucking with remainers like you, you idle twat.
"I think its time we went for a pint" id have given anything to go for a beer with fred
Gave up cubs for this!!!
Loved staying with my dear ole nan god bless her, and watching this together.👍
Fred mentioned that the Chimney swayed in the wind, he would have liked to be on a 600 foot cell tower they move as much as 2 feet. Much respect for Fred!
That sounds nauseating
His strength and fitness,was amazing.Doing all that graft,up there!!
"he were like, a cut above the rest with like, the grey matter"
This guy is bursting with character, I like him.
Absolute Definition of Legend
Top bloke. Lancashire is very proud of this fella.
Rightly so at that!
A legend that will be sadly missed and so talented and skilled
Used to love watching Fred, R.I.P Fred.
2 grand in 1982 was an awful lot of money for what is essentially an lump of old iron and bits, but to fred it must had looked like a dream.
For the Americans , and a fun fact for our British brothers and sisters; With the pound being stronger than the dollar , my remedial math skills tells me that 2k GBP in 1980 was worth almost 3k USD abouts.
What gets me more is that it was only 15 years since its last boiler examination for the council that owned it.. so it worked until 1967. Buy a wreck now and it’s been out of service for 60 years or more..
Amazing such a hard job gives me the wobbles just watching it
Thanks for uploading these, a blast from the past, Fred was a legend. :)
I felt sick just watching him on that chair, no safety gear at all just an incredible man probably a one of. He was so interesting from his working chimneys to his engines and then his other tv work. Sadly missed.
Fantastic man very genuine and honest 👏👏
Watched the video loads of times over the years never get tired of watch in the stores on Fred
2:12 Just burning some leaves on the side of the road......nothing to see here
Haha! I thought that! Good spot
Greta would be up in arms
Another mad old fk er. Miss em.
@@mci6830 same
Better times
I can barely watch this. Cant even imagine being that high and working.
i try to remind everyone..heights are gained over the years..no one runs up to the top of any amazing heights overnight..feet by feet one day your very comfortable..start low and grow! RIP Fred
Never see the like of Fred again , died far to young .RIP.
An amazing man, a real man, sadly there aren’t many left. I bought every book that was written by or about. Fred while watching all of his shows on TH-cam. I can’t imagine how he set up his ladders, climbing to this top of some very high smokestacks. I can see it, I just don’t believe what I’m seeing. I know I’d fall and break my ass before I got to 10’. Wherever you are Fred, I wish I’d met you but I doubt you ever got to Phoenix, AZ in your travels, when Blackpool was a once in a lifetime trip for you are the family.
men like Fred have all but disappeared never to be replaced and with him goes all the knowledge and skill he possessed. Would have loved to meet him.
A lot of the young people think it's beneath them to do physical labor.
Patrick Ancona To paraphrase Joe Mallen -- "were still about" !
@@bigredc222 And that is what causes their downfall.... I spent time with men of similar ilk, all old school steam era railwaymen. Spent much time inside the firebox of steam loco's,cleaning brick arches and inspecting the fusible plugs and inner firebox, cleaning smoke box's,chopping tonnes of firewood for every light-up and doing wash outs.All hard, hot and dirty work but not something i would change for anything,id go back and do it all again.Young people these days just don't get it, far too concerned with playing video games and trying to get their gentiles sucked.
They all complain about their college loans, when I graduated high school if you couldn't afford to go to college you went to work, you didn't borrow a ridiculous amount of money.
I can’t stop watching this mans videos, what a humble hardworking ,easy pleased man he was, he’s so funny some of the things he says.
This world sure needs more people like Fred
This man was instrumental in my love of 'working at height which started when i was 18 and remember watching the series when it originally aired...i recently retired after ending up building wind turbines offshore 100m + out side of the nacelle getting the lifting bracket off...its dark..no one can see ....harness is a pain in the buttress...lets just stand on top and get the job done....it's what Fred would have done ! RIP Mr Dibnah
Be nice for the National Trust to buy Fred's old house and open it up for the public to view and appreciate.
It was on rightmove a month or two ago
I could watch these forever. What a glorious man!
A truly extraordinary piece of television. Fred is portrayed to be the remarkable man that he was. I get chills down my spine every time I watch it.
I can only imagine the view from up there, I bet it's beautiful. Thanks for uploading this, I'm going to binge-watch the shit out of Fred! I'm 6'10" tall, around 2 meters, and I have a sensible fear of heights. Mainly because I know what it's like to fall and hit the ground.
You know he loved every minute he was working or talking about his work
Many thanks for posting, this is great TV.
This brings back so many memories. Fred Dibnah was a childhood staple on our house. Thanks for sharing. I shall be happily ensconced reliving every episode for the next several days, with a Do Not Disturb sign on the door. :)
It seems so long now since I last saw Fred. He had come to a rail side show at Doncaster. His steam engine was up on a trailer with Fred riding it. He looked so very down until I gave him a shout and that seemed to cheer him up a bit. It was good to see him again . R.I.P Fred.
Just love Freddy ! Cheers MATE'S ! From the U.S.
He's on the Raikes Lane incinerator chimney there at Bolton tip. The green ate a as he looks out in the last few minutes is the old greyhound track with Burnden Park a few yards away. Both long gone.
Great days.
Great watch, glad I found these videos.
do you like that. with those 4 words a legend is born
R.I.P fred
Those four words were actually: (0:41) "Did do like that?" Not "Do you like that?"
"Der ya like that"
Should be a shirt,
sorry to be pradantic mate but it wasn't actually that... "did u like that" X
it was did you... actually