BIG NOPE!!! American Construction Worker Reacts "Steeplejack FRED DIBNAH takes down MASSIVE chimney"
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- #FredDibnah #Steeplejack #americansreact
Original Video: • 1979: Steeplejack FRED...
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Fred was from Bolton, Peter Kay’s hometown, I’ve met him many times as he was a drinking pal of my father. He also looked after the chimney where I worked. He was a real character and highly intelligent and a brilliant engineer. He built his own steam engine and had a steam powered workshop at his house. He went to art school and his engineering drawings were works of art in their own right. The reason for the chimneys was steam engines. Bolton was a cotton mill town, as was most of Lancashire, and the looms were powered by belts that had a steam engine driving them. He didn’t blow up chimneys he burnt them down. Look for those videos and the ones of him putting up the ladders and him scaffolding the top.
The chimney videos are absolutely mental. The man was fearless
I grew up in Bolton inthe 70s / 80s - my primary school was on Gaskell Street in the shadow of one of the last textile mills. My older brother had some passing acquaintance at school with Fred's daughter.
During the American civil war, lancashire was deprived of cotton from the Southern states due to union naval blockades.Lancashire was up the proverbial creek as the mills nearly ground to a halt. A high powered meeting in Blackburn ensued and the consensus was that Britain should join up with the South. But i think that would have been capitolist mill owners who probably only shouldered arms on the grouse moor , not Bull run. P.S I cant spell very well so forgive my ignorance .
The reason we had those chimneys was the industrial revolution
@@danic9304 Fred and my Dad used to drink in the 7 Stars in Little Lever in the late 60s early 70s. When Radcliffe Carnival was on he would park Allison his traction engine on Crowthers were my dad was a Director. They would then get hammered in the Stopes Tavern then Fred would sleep in his caravan that he towed behind the engine. Happy days.
This bloke is an absolute legend in British culture 💪🏼🇬🇧 proper man’s man, salt of the earth.
Fred was a legend in the UK.
Despite being a master at his craft, it saddened him to bring down the structures- he was aware of the sweat that went into building them, and the things they helped produce in their day.
Watch Fred put the ladders up and the scaffolding now that is balls of titanium.
If you think it's scary watching him climb the ladder, watch the video of him installing the ladder lol. In England, this man was the single person responsible for me having an engineering career. When I was young, he fascinated by him. He made me so interested in all things engineering. RIP Fred.
Agreed buddy, putting the thing up was beyond normal people. To trust you life to your tiny bolt holes was just amazing.
Yep, it’s only from watching Fred install the ladders that I know what a ‘dog leg’ is, and how to strap ladders together of course.😊
@@piketfi8139 health and safety would have a heart attack today, but this is how we did stuff back in the day.
Agreed way more impressive. I and I believe many reading this couldn’t hold Fred’s boots for him. Lot of tosh on TH-cam about so called real men. Think Fred would just laugh Legend and he’d hate being referred to as anything other than an ordinary bloke 🤘
His demolition of chimneys, burning tyres etc is great!!
Fred is an absolute legend here in England. A unique individual and someone that was very knowledgeable apart from being totally fearless. Sorely missed by the nation R.I.P. Fred
This programme made him a household name.
Not just England! across the UK
of certain age groups yes he's one that will ultimately get forgotton over time unfortunately 😔
@@jimjogger306 bit of a soulless comment about a legend.
@@nik-ev3eh i mean you literally didnt read my comment did you
Fred died in 2004 from stomach cancer. He was a national treasure and was honoured by the Queen. He did lots of heritage and industrial history programmes for the BBC in his latter years.
One of my all time heroes and a highly intelligent man
RIP legend. 👍
Did I see his son has taken it all on or was that just the steam engines
@@Scano41 I'd think the steam engines only. Steeplejacks like Fred are few & far between today. The dynamite boys do the work today.
Back in 1965 when I was a lad of 16 I had to climb up similar ladders in winter with ice and snow on the ladder rungs and the wind was howling sleet. What saved me was that I was terrified of heights therefore I gripped the rungs like grim death. When I got to the top the tradesman with me said Son you will enjoy the wonderful view and I could see for about 15 miles. Then the storm came in suddenly and the sleet blasted in and the wind howled and I could only see about five feet. The tradesman said that it was going to get much worse so we should get down and off he went and left me to follow him. As I wear glasses and am short sighted I took ten minutes to find the ladder then I found out just how hard it was to climb down as I could not see my feet to see where the next rung was and I had to carefully put my foof down. It took me two hours to get down and I was turning blue and had very little feeling in my hands and feet. Of course now I can boast about the GOOD OLD DAYS WHEN WE DID NOT WORRY ABOUT THINGS LIKE SAFETY GEAR BECAUSE WE WERE REAL MEN to the lads now. To be honest when I was back on the ground I was so happy to just survive and I felt that after that I was invincible and I could do anything but reality stepped in when I walked round the base of the chimney the blizzard hit me and I had a huge problem just finding the workshop. The steaming mug of tea heavily laced with whisky brought me back to life and in my memory I can still taste it. It has been a wonderful life .
Superb tale that my friend. Thank you for sharing it.
I bet you didn't tell your mum that story! She'd have given that tradesman something to think about!
Never hold the rungs, hold the sides.
Fred has been described as a renaissance man, he had an eye for architecture, engineering, he could draw and design, he even rebuilt an old steam traction engine. He truly was incredible, and I doubt we will see his like again.
Loved watching Fred back in the day.
He was one of the first real people on British television. He made no attempt to change how he presented himself. He was authentic, he was northern and he was honest. It was great to see a working class northerner on the television being entirely unapologetic.
He wasn't just honest about himself, he was deeply knowledgeable about engineering and presented what would previously have been shown in a somewhat condescending manner as mundane, menial work with insight and intelligence. Weaving it into a tapestry which included historical and social context.
It was as fascinating as it was heartstopping, to watch him clamber up and down these structures educating you about them, their importance, the industries that they serviced and the people that they affected as he figured out how to knock most of them down.
This first documentary brought him national fame. That fame allowed him to live the rest of his life doing what he loved, being around steam engines, steam trains, victorian pump houses dungarees on and elbows deep in grease and gears. He lived his absolute best life and right up to till his sad passing, he did the north proud.
One of the things I like about this channel is that you're prepared to listen to people who don't often get heard in America. It's people like Fred who really represent the people of the UK, not the idiots in parliament or the celebrities on the red carpets. Many people in the UK will know someone like Fred - someone who's brave and determined but doesn't get the reward they really should. These people are the backbone of the UK's society but, sadly, they are all too often ignored.
A good and accurate observation Sam.
Excellently said, Sam 👍
Well said. Fred was the epitome of a Great Briton.
Indeed
They WERE. Most of em are either dead or in the process of being replaced.
Fred was a legend - we Brits are a random bunch with who we take to our hearts. We all loved Fred
There are a couple of videos, same series, of him "laddering" the chimney and putting on the scaffolding collar round the top. You need to watch these. There are also vids of him with his steam engines. He was an honest English legend and for a couple of years one of the most famous people in Britain. As a side note they were built from the inside. A scaffold tower was constructed and built higher as the brick courses increased.
Fred was an astonishingly intelligent and capable man. When you see him erecting the wooden platforms around a chimney 200feet up and listen to him commentating you realise that this is a unique man with incredible talent.
Fred wasn't unique, if you listen to him on one of his 'staging' videos he talks about learning how to do it from others.
IIRC the chap who was most instrumental was an engineer who stumbled into steeplejacking and drew it all out, in a way Fred could understand.
Search for a BBC archive film: 1965: Could YOU be a STEEPLEJACK?
IIRC there's another 1970's one in a similar vein.
@@georgechickful and even today, in many 3rd world countries they work like this or even more Dangerous
Should try looking at those climbing transmission and cell towers in the US.
Seem to be a fair number people been killed there.
The cameraman was on a big crane with a cage and he also climbed up too. Fred is a legend and I've watched him on telly for 30 years
Honorary mention also to John Noakes who was a humble children's TV presenter in the UK but climbed a ladder up Nelson's Column with no safety equipment and the ladder tipped back beyond vertical near the top. Also to the cameraman who went with him of course.
Aye, John Noakes was another nutter who was quite happy to take on all sorts of daft challenges, remember the bruises from the bob sleigh down the cresta run?
I'm from Bolton the same place as this gent. We have a massive statue of him in our Town Centre. Also, when he sadly passed away, a local brewery asked if they could release a beer in his honour. His wife demanded a huge sum to let them. They released a beer call Gold Digger that definetley wasn't related, absolutley not 😂
That's brilliant😂
You need to watch the one where he is putting up that ladder, one ladder at a time. He has to bang holes in the brings, pull ladder up and then move up one and repeat
Yeah I agree that's unbelievable
And the ladder is tied ,so a certain amount of flexibility
My great-grandfather was a steeplejack. He left his job during WWI to go and fight. He fought and survived the Battle of the Somme, only to come home a few weeks after to die from falling off his local church roof that he was renovating. Sadly, his luck ran out.
Sad to hear that /swedish scaffolder
Stuff like this upsets me..
Normally with these videos i see a lot of comments bemoaning "safety culture" "men were men" "just get on with the job"
After everything he endured your grandpa died a preventable death, tragic waste and the reason that OHS laws are written in blood.
_” the reason that OHS laws are written in blood.”_
Yes, Health & Safety laws were required, but they have become so ridiculous now that the red tape just strangles companies.
@@frankryan2505 those chimmy's where built in the early 1800's , they where the essential component to the industrial revolution, whether it's building them, being in a coal mine, or on in the Navy on 3 year trips, there where many a thing that could kill you. Something has been lost with the sanitization of everything. I bet people like Fred where never bored, he truely lived , where today most of us sit in front of a TV , consuming things we would'nt dare do
Respect for your Great Grandfather.
Fred was a national treasure. you would watch and listen to him on anything.
Hi guys.
First of all my wife Alyson and I are in our early 70’s and we both love your videos. Alyson is from Bolton the town were Fred lived. Bolton is a town not too far from Manchester in the North West of England.
When we were children the North West of England had lots of these factory chimneys in most of the towns. Fred was a true character, he became a T.V. star after appearing on a local news channel. Fred’s way of explaining things made him very popular and a must watch when ever he was on T.V.
Fred often said that he should have been born in the Victorian times as he loved all the old engineering and did everything the old way. He made lots of programmes on his work bringing down old chimneys. Then as he got older, he turned to looking at a explaining about old stream engines.
Fred sadly died on the 6 November 2004 at the age of 66 from bladder cancer. He had just started to film a new program in 2003, he managed to make the programs with the help of his son Jack who loved the same type of life as Fred his father. His funeral brought Bolton to a standstill.
We hope this brief background on Fred is of interest and helpful to you two great young men. Allow us to say a big thankyou for giving us a great deal of pleasure with you videos.
Stay safe.
David and Alyson.
You SOOOO need to see him fixing those ladders. It's legendary. Fred's a legend. The North of England was the heart of the industrial revolution. All based on Coal/Steam driven mill equipment. The Northern skyline was chimneys as far as the eye could see. There was some status in chimneys. The taller the chimney the richer the owner. Building them was different. I think they stood on the inside of the chimney to build them. Probably a great contract to get as a bricklayer and I bet it took longer for Fred to take it down. He died of Bladder cancer some years back. You could say it was the Beer that got him. The chimneys never beat him though.
Actually coal and oil soot has loads of carcinogens, so that might have contributed. I remember the 1970s for high inflation in the UK and it's difficult to remember car prices. I saw a reference to a catalogue three years earlier where a small sports car, the Triumph Spitfire was priced. Fred's £7000 would have bought three of them then.
My dad bought a Renault 4 I think in 1970 and it was under £1000
The over hang on the tower in Darwen makes me cringe to this day.
@@another2133 2 hours of a fire??how much has your car used since he passed away. Did you seriously think mentioning a bit of diesel and a few tyres, The cotton mills and engineering works made the towns we live in
@@craiglatham I can’t watch that one
Fred passed away in 2004 unfortunately. He was a National treasure and a staple of British TV in my younger years in the 80s. He was a real old school steeple jack. You’ll find loads of videos of him around TH-cam either maintaining or felling old chimneys, but also talking about restoring steam/traction engines among other things.
It wasn't even the crazy work that got him, either, he walked away from every job.
Can’t believe it’s been almost 20 years 😮! He was a great bloke
He’s saying in USA you must have harnesses etc. Fred Dibnah was working decades ago, U.K. is even stricter than USA nowadays. Just to trim a hedge nowadays they take out an entire lane of the road for half a mile either side. Look at the films of the construction workers who built the Empire State Building around 1930. They had no hard hats let alone harnesses. Brave, brave men, who were likely paid a pittance.
@@paulmurgatroyd6372 yet cigarettes did.... and people STILL smoke them.....
It's amazing how Fred got up those ladders while possessing a huge set of bollocks.
That time when Fred dug a fricking mine in his back garden! 😂
Fred was. One of a kind, not only a steeplejack but also an accomplished engineer. He always said he was born in the wrong era, at heart he was a Victorian - RIP
He died almost twenty years ago, of cancer. Never injured himself at work. Worth watching more of him.
Fred Dibnah. Fearless steeplejack, engineer, talented TV presenter, popular after dinner speaker, steam enthusiast, beautifully accomplished draughtsman. Not to mention balls of steel.
A real British character and much respected and missed by many. RIP Fred.
Thanks for the entertainment and inspiration.
Don't forget poet.
Fred is an absolute legend. He took is family on holiday down to Blackpool little did they know at the time he went down drop a chimney
That was a great episode, he did a deal with the engineering company and got a part made for his steam engine
@Cupid Stunt yes he did that's correct
I remember the bollocking he got from the wife. She was not amused in the slightest. And that heap of a Landrover 😂
Fred was a legend. I remember watching him on TV, when I was a teenager, in 80s Ireland. The way he approached every project was brilliant. Men like him, and many of the old school I worked with in the UK are sadly gone. Tough times breed tough men i guess.
Hard times create hard men, hard men create easy times, easy times create weak men, weak men create hard times, and so the cycle continues. 🍻
@@KumaBeanPretty much bang on , but good men cant really be blamed for that I suppose , building up is one thing maintaining is quite another .
Even for those of us working in the UK construction industry around that time Fred was a legend. He was a relic from a different age. Like one of the steel guys who built the first skyscrapers. His quote for taking down that chimney was almost twice the average national wage at that time. It would have been 1/3rd the price of an average house or bought 14,000 pints of beer.
I was working as a barman in the North of England in 1979 and £7,000 would have actually bought over 20,000 pints! A pint of bitter (in my city centre pub) cost 30p in the lounge or 28p in the public bar. Mild was a couple of pence less and lager (still a minority interest) a couple of pence more.
Without wanting to sound too much like someone's grandad, a fiver was enough for a night of drinking with money left over for fish and chips on the way home. On the other hand, I was earning just over a pound an hour back then... so £7,000 would have been about three and a half years pay for me.
I think you'd have to pour about 14,000 pints of beer into me to even start getting me up a ladder like that.
@@jameslewis2635 yeah, I worked as a slater's mate in my youth on Glasgow tenements and climbed the rigging of tall ships but stuff that chimney for a lark.
@@MrPaulMorris man having the USD come off precious metals standard really fucked us all up
@@longlowdog do you live in Glasgow, I'm a Parkhead man myself.
Fred was a national treasure. You have done it now. You will become addicted watching him.
Plenty of videos of him working in many situations. RIP FRED.
Fred was a treasure. There were whole series of him just doing what he loved and talking to the camera and it felt like he was talking straight at you. When he went it was like losing a favourite uncle
Fred was an absolute legend, everyone in the U.K. knows who he was, a highly intelligent man, an expert on industrial heritage & history, & he had nerves of steel! a much missed character.
I lived round the corner from Fred he had a lovley moat bridge house he kept his steam engine and carriage every nut and bolt made from ground up cast himself he was a very hard man that's why we won the war ❤
Fred made several documentarys and the whole UK was facinated with him. He was a great steam engine lover and made several films about restoring old machines. Even if you had no interest in the machines yourself you got sucked in by his personality and enthusiasm.
So very true.....
Everyone old and young loves fred . If you want to know what a proper old school British man was like then Fred is the perfect example
I've met Fred. He was big on his steam fairs and I met him at one once. His wagon still does the shows. He is a legend! The guy got in trouble for digging a mine shaft in his back garden. A real real lad! We lost a little bit of England when we lost Fred.
I never had the pleasure of meeting the man himself, but I think our car got stuck behind his traction engine for a few miles whilst out driving one weekend :-P
You have to understand 1960s England, every local mill had chimneys like this, having served my apprenticeship there I appreciate what Fred is doing.
Fred what a man, loved his programmes. Hard as nails with a gentle manner. What a character.
British Steeple Jacks were a breed apart. I guess the American equivalent would have been the iron workers that built the skyscrapers in the US. Fred became famous after they filmed him knocking down some chimneys in the 1970s. He became a "national treasure" doing TV programs on steam engines and our Victorian industrial heritage. His funeral was massive in 2004. Look up the videos on TH-cam.
The communications tower free climbers out there scare the hell out of m just watching
Beautifully said . The high iron workers in America were more native people.because the balance was so natural. Fred had it , the Bolton arapaho .God rest him ! He could still be demolishing chimneys in heaven, If God meets his estimate .
It’s great to see your reaction. The city scapes of northern England have completely changed and there are very few chimneys like that around today. There must have been thousands of them back in the 19th century and I guess Fred must have taken down a great number of them. I believe that he was a trained draughtsman but he was a talented engineer who had a great understanding of all things mechanical. This series in ‘79 introduced him to the British public and there was more to follow, pretty much all of which can thankfully be found in the BBC archive or on TH-cam. Fred was a much loved character who featured regularly on TV until the end of his life. We are lucky to be able to find out more about him from almost 30 years of programs and you should be able to find these quite easily, all of which are still great to watch today.
Fred spent most of his working life demolishing stuff but he was also a master craftsmen who could turn his hand to pretty much anything. He presented a TV series about famous British buildings such as St. Pauls cathedral. He'd make technical drawings of key points of the structures and those drawings were like works of art.
Yes, he was a skilled draughtsman, engineer and steeplejack.
I have his autograph from a steam fair he was at. It took him half a minute to write each one, an artwork in itself.
Buttie comes from the term "buttered bread", but British Bread is nothing like Wonder Bread. Far less sugar in it, and more vitamins from the type of grain used, so it is far more filling.
This dude is a legend and been talked about for a long time.
Not only was he fearless by climbing to the top to take it down break by brick.
He was also a master at taking them down from the bottom he would take out some bricks and start a huge fire and he would fell the stack just like a lumberjack would a tree and he was perfectly accurate.
What a lot of people don't know is he carried a lot of guilt. He loved the stacks and when he had to take him down and hurt his heart.
That's a good man doing a job nobody will do allowing progress even though he loved the stacks and he wanted to keep them all.
Absolute legend is Fred.. No fear and seriously as brave as they come. There's a video of him constructing scaffold up at top of a tower with No safety ropes or harnesd. He was a one off.
Also impressive is that he used a chisel without a hand guard on it, id of smashed my hands to bits without an hand guard.
I bet his hands damaged the hammer
they don't make them like Fred anymore sadly
Or any proper eye protection, the way that chisel has flared over means bits are going to come flying of it. We were always schooled to never use one in that state and to grind any flaring off. But hey, this is Fred.
I'd HAVE
@@caramba10 When the bits of brick hit his eyes it destroyed the brick
Fred Dibnah, what a legend. He was a unique figure, nationally known, on the TV a fair bit, attained celebrity status up and down the country, but remained, despite the fame, a practically minded man. He should be on a coin or a currency note, but being a man who worked for his money, its unlikely he'll ever get there. A humble titan, a colossus unaware of his own importance and prestige, the working mans working man. May he rest in peace, but never be forgot.
amen ti that mate , aye !
"being a man who worked for his money" - nicely put!
Great reaction guys✌️Fred is an absolute legend in the UK, sadly no longer with us , down to earth bloke with no f*s given, he used to have a TV series about his life and work when I was a kid and at school we honestly thought he was the real spiderman 😂😂balls of diamonds 👍
When Fred was born, the nurse looked between his legs, turned to his mother and said congratulations, it’s a man…..
Buttie is a buttered sandwich... so Northern English to have chip/cheese sandwiches :D
Fred was not only brilliant as a demolition man, but he was a gifted artist, engineer and historian. Try watching some of his programmes about the building of cathedrals and castles.
His technical drawings were extremely impressive and accurate. RIP Fred he didn’t do bad for a working class lad from Bolton.
My dad and dear departed grandfather repointed the brickwork on one of these in my hometown. Neither of them were steeplejacks. My granddad were a retired miner and my dad was self taught everything. He started on building sites back in the early 70s at age 13. Different men for different times.
Like the other comments say "laddering a chimney" is probably the best start to see how Fred does it
Fred died of cancer. Smoking got him. He was 66. They were boiler house chimneys. He was very clever and introduced history programs esp. On the romans in Britain in later life. He's also in the Guinness book of world records for the biggest balls of all time.
66 , That's quite young especially for someone like him smoker or not , thought he'd get twenty more years , pity .
Got paid the equivalent of 50000 dollars, whatever it looks like Fred was an absolute legend and very good at his job. His knowledge was immense and I would have trusted his ladders with no question. Please watch how he set up his ladders, well worth the watch
Not trying to be a nobhead. I think relative to exchange rate and global currency rates it would feel more like about $90k
The thing with Fred is that he loved old buildings. He brought down a lot of old chimneys and he never used explosives. It was either brick by brick like this or he open up a hole in the bottom, slowly filling it with wood as he goes, then set fire to it. Its an old fashioned method but let the chimney smoke one last time before it came down.
He was not only good a demolition but restoration too. He had a traction engine, a road roller. He built a pit head in his garden and his workshop was steam powered. He was also an accomplished artist, his sketches of old machines and architecture were magnificent.
When he brought down a chimney using fire, what he actually did was take out bricks at ground level and replace them with timber props, so eventually half the chimney walls were replaced by props. Then he would burn the props and the chimey collapsed under its own weight.
Just for interest, this was exactly the way castle walls were brought down during medieval sieges. To counter this, castle buiders dug moats around castles.
@@theborderer1302 they were called Sappers and it's where we get the term "Undermining" from.
You should also watch him dropping a chimney using the old methods rather than explosives. He couldn't drop the one in the video because of the surroundings so he had to take it down by hand. I've watched Fred take several chimneys down when I was a kid, and a huge cooling tower in the next town, which was one of his last
Fred was a Northern legend....totally without fear....literally...nothing fazed him...no challenge went unmet....no chimney was immune to his steeplejacking....incredible human being.....you know the old saying...
Dare to go where angels fear to tread.....
Even us girls loved watching Fred.
Thanks for this guys. Really enjoyed it. Fred Dibnah was a legend in the UK. He started off as the subject of a documentary series on the BBC but went on to have several of his own TV series. He built chimneys, demolished them, built steam engines, even dug a mine shaft in his garden. He was a proper character and sadly taken before his time. (Not by any accident I might add). I'll always remember one of his sayings; "One mistek up there and it's half a day owt wit undertaker. ". RIP Fred.
As others have said, check out him putting up the scaffold.
The way he holds the planks by the ends, while he lifts them into place, shows incredible strength.
In his own vernacular, I wouldn't wanna gerra clout off him!
I expect he would have still put most of us out for the count on his deathbed
Incredibly strong core muscles.
Fred the legend , engineer , steeplejack and all round good bloke . The North of England had hundreds of chimneys stemming from the industrial revolution and the many Mills that supported the cotton industry amongst others .
They do not make them like Fred anymore . He was a victorian gentleman living in the 20th century . Cancer took him in the end . RIP Fred . You should definitely go down the Fred Dibnah rabbit hole . So many videos and even his funeral is on TH-cam , that's how much esteem he was held by the British public.
Just look at the turn out for his funeral to see what a national treasure Fred was,sadly missed.
“That’s not stable at all”
Anyone else watching who’s already aware of Fred knows fine well its more stable than our life goals😂😂
and he put the ladder up, so you can be sure it's safe as houses
You think this is mad, you need to watch him bring a chimney down with fire
As a construction guy you will certainly appreciate the effort , skill , patience , courage , accuracy , confidence and knowledge that went into old school building work. Fred Dibnah is the perfect example of the mentality involved and there are numerous videos on TH-cam demonstrating various activities from demolition to repair , inspection , scaffolding , laddering etc. Fascinating stuff and extremely informative. DO NOT STOP watching after this one video...
Lots of love for this video, I grew up very near him and he was a legend. I remember seeing a video of him climbing the India Mill Chimney in Darwen. The chimneys were used by old cotton mills basically to get rid of excess pollutants
Back in the day in the North of England there were a lot of Cotton Mills, and the Lumens were run of coal burning furnaces, hence these tall chimneys outside old factories, or where factories have once stood.
Fred Dibnah and Blaster bates two of my British HEROS!
Oh…Blaster Bates was amazing… the creator of more than one “extreme weather event” a lot worse than contrails, but quite good for the roses!
I grew up in the town where this footage was shot (Shaw and Crompton, in the Borough of Oldham, just north of Manchester). I was born in 81, too late to see Fred's demolition of the chimney, but I did see the demolition of the surrounding Rutland mill in the late 80's. I went on to work in my teens in the surviving mills (Lilac, which you csn see in this footage, and Briar), then owned by Littlewoods as a warehousing centre, firstly as an order picker and then as a conveyor belt operative, until I moved on in my career. The mills are now finally scheduled to be fully demolished over the next year or so to make way for housing. Oldham was a skyline of chimney stacks when I was a young lad, I used to look out of my bedroom window and watch the sun set behind their towering, defunct silhouettes. A lament to an industrial age that has left the likes of Fred behind. You can still drink the bitter that he likely had on his lunch break though! We're alreet here 🍻
Fred Dibnah is and was a total legend. He knew exactly what he was doing. Sadly Fred is no longer with us,cancer took him.
If you ever watch a famous TT racer called Guy Martin, you'll notice he seems have the same mindset as Fred does, no fear, a very laid-back attitude and a love for tinkering on the engineering side things, they have away of holding your interest in anything they talk about, I wonder if it's the consequences of living dangerously it gives you a passionate about what grounds you more than other people because you might not be around the next job you do
I think that the most amazing thing is that all steeplejacks worked like this once. Fred was the last of a dying breed and as you say it would never be allowed today.
the video of him putting the ladders up is f'en crazy crazy...I paint at heights and this legend is nutz !!
I'm from Bolton Fred is a legend
Fred was an incredibly skilled, intelligent Engineer... Way beyond simply demolishing chimneys... His understanding of steam engines is legendary.
Fred was quite a romantic character in the story of the Industrial Revolution (hear me out).
He trained as a steeplejack, someone who builds chimneys, however by the time he hit middle age British industry was in decline and it was Fred who was responsible for the destruction of many of the Victorian era chimneys across the industrial north west of England, in and around Manchester. He had to destroy the things he loved, and with them the remnants of Britains industrial heritage.
These chimneys were built during the Industrial Revolution, to release the smoke and other by products from local factories. Many factories would require generators or spinning machinery, so would therefore burn coal. If you look at old photos of towns such as Oldham and Bolton, the skylines were littered with these chimneys. Many of them are now gone, as they were unused and unsafe, some still remain.
The North West of England is very proud of its industrial past, playing an integral part in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, helping the country become the super power it used to be. Fred Dibnah acted, for many, as a direct link back to this industrial past. He was a legend, and had bollocks the size of grapefruits.
we still have kept many in the northwest well idk about the citys but in the mill towns we have like colne and burnley they are heritige sites like they should be
it was usually the more less ornate stacks that were destroyed to make way for new things they usually keep more ornate ones as a lot of men worked hard in the 1800s getting them 5 tones stones 300ft in the air mental really like strangeways prison in manchester still has its vic smoke stack its an example of the most ornate ones arouund
He was a Carpenter and Joiner pal. He did steeplejacking as he had a facination with it, amongst everything else he had a facination with. Total legend.
Great comment
Fred was a good mate of my late father through their shared love and ownership of Steam Engines (ignore the H...Dibna).
He was a great fella and went on to present some great shows about the Industrial Revolution (which began where we live) for the BBC. He became a National Treasure. I'll try and dig some photos out of him and my Dad when I get chance. One of his sons now lives on the IOM
If I remember correctly he married quite late.
@@chrismoule7242 he was married twice
What a fantastic bloke was fred, made you very proud to be english back in the day.
An unassuming hero in the UK. I watched the series with my parents when growing up and even then we were shocked at what he did, but things were like that back then. I'm sure you've seen the photograph of the guys working on the empire state building when it was constructed. They just wore normal shoes. Times change, we manage the risks better but accidents still happen. RIP Fred.
Check out Fred's videos where he's putting up those ladders, he explains in one of those how he hauls materiels up there when repairing them.
Those chimneys BTW were from industries long gone, he mention Courtaulds, they were a massive textile making company here, those chimneys would be for the boilers that ran the looms etc
Fred was from the great generation, a generation aptly named.
Yeah, that video where he’s hammering in those dogs puts the fear of god into me.
Honestly waiting for this since I subscribed, nice one fellas. Enjoy your Freducation! (To save excess wear and tear on your hearts, Fred died peacefully on solid ground.)
In general, the chimneys were for the coal fired steam engines that were used to power to machinery in the mill or manufactory attached to them.
There's one at the bottom of my road in a place called Saltaire in West Yorkshire, with the attached mill still there too (but no longer being used for what it was: it has shops, a diner and art galleries in it now).
They're f-ing bonkers things really, the size of mill is nuts too.
Crazy workmanship when you really look at salts mill. We could only dream of building such things these days. That's one chimney that will never be destroyed.
So glad to hear you guys wear safety gear. I'm in Australia and our workplace safety is through the roof these days but we used to do some dangerous stuff when I was a young carpenter.
Chinmey from mills built in the early industrial revolution. They were every. He hauld every up by hand. You need to watch more. He put the ladders up himself. He is legend.
"You'll only fall off a chimney once."
There's a whole series of Fred Dibnah on YT, even one on how he puts the ladders up and the scaffolding at the top of that very chimney.
Taking them down, he knocks a hole out of one side at the bottom, then props it up with pit props - stuffs the base cavity with pallets, tyres etc. and puts a match to it all....the chimney has one last burn before the props burn through and it falls....he'd typically stand 6 foot away, staring into the flames....with a old style car horn on a bit of string round his neck....and when the chimney was starting to fall, he'd honk the horn as a warning whilst moving away.....there is a video of him having to leg it from the base of one chimney, as it went faster than he was expecting....after the dust settled and the stack had fallen....Fred appears with a big grin and says ..."did ya like that."
he is passed RIP fred , had the pleasure to meet him when i was a child he is a uk legend
I knew Fred very very well I'm a blacksmith I dod work for him on his traction engine right up untill his death... fred was a national treasure he was a wonderful guy but he's exactly what we are round her.
In the UK rationing happened after WW2 even in the 50's. And before that in victorian times food was scarce for common people.
The UK has these things engrained in its culture. A lot of UK food is about taking what you have and making what you can out of it. Which is why we have a lot of Stews and Pasties and Carb based meals that are traditional UK foods. It was to keep tradesman going at their jobs. So we are used to many foods that may usually have things like meat in, but don't. Dairy is a great protein sauce and cheaper than meat itself. I thin many people dont actually realise, hat although the UK gov and Monarchy ruled the world for 200-300 years , the common people in the UK have pretty much always suffered and struggled. I would say in terms of resources, the UK between 1960 and 2000 probably was at its most affluent, however people like Fred are born of the old skool. there was no "healthy" eating back then, (or at least back to around Freds childhood) there was eating or not eating.
So a lot of UK food is very simple and the goal is slow release of energy throughout a day, so lots of carbs and dairy.This is also why we have a drinking culture. Meade, Stout and Ales have far more calories than Lager so again it was a way to sterlise liquid but also get extra energy from liquid as well as food. The UK is ironically shaped by the poverty of the common men who built it (whilst upper class c*nts live off their blood sweat and tears and make all the big bucks)
You were cringing when he climbed outwards to get on top of his staging, you might want to consider watching him climb the "India mill chimney, Blackburn" because there's an even bigger outward climb ...
The average pay was £5,876 in 1979 compaired today £29,600
The average house price was £17,000 in 1979 compaired today £256,000.
So £7,000 was alot of money.
You need to check out how fred put those ladder up the chimney
This program made Fred a star in the UK he had a few series of his own shows after this up until he died in 2004, he also restored vintage steam engines and steam trains, their was one show when he was on holiday/vacation with his family and he went missing, his wife went looking for him and found him at the top of a large chimney, he noticed someone working up there and just went up to have a chat with him, but ended up helping him out, for no pay whilst on his holiday, a crazy man that we in tbe UK took to our hearts.
I had the privilege of seeing Fred bring a chimney down when I was a kid, crowds from all over the country would gather to watch him do it.
This was his day job for the most part but he was also very passionate about steam engines and the industrial age of England and made many documentaries about it.
He really was a genius and national treasure, please watch more of him.
Guys watch "" Fred Dibnah how to climb a chimney overhang at 50+"
Here on you tube..
Gives me vertigo sat down watchin it..
There's only three things a Volvo fears:
1 God,
2 Another Volvo
3 Fred Dibnah. 😂
2 things lads. As everyone else is saying, watch the other videos of Fred on how he sets up his ladders and how he sets up the scaffolding. Amazing what some rope, wood and know how can do.
Second, the video that was on the end card is worth a watch as well. The John Noaks scaling Nelson's Column one. Same idea. Normal bloke climes ladder without harness, but this is a children's TV presenter looking at how they clean the statue. Climbing the ladder has to be seen to be believed.
Most popular bread for buttys/sandwiches is often Warburtons in Lancashire which is a really good bread and a chip butty would often have meat gravy on it, curry sauce or ketchup. Chips are thicker than fries and often made fresh not frozen here, so more filling and tasty. Chips and gravy butty tastes amazing. It's great for cold weather.
Also this what workers could afford
The BBC struck gold when they discovered Fred Dibnah. From his steeplejack and demolition work, they moved on to document his passion for steam traction engines, and his life in general. When someone dies, and people say, 'we shall never see his like again', that was true of Fred. He represented a bygone era.
So your channel just popped up on my youtube . Its great , but I think you are underselling your own predecessors . Any time i think of usa one of the images that comes first is the iconic picture of those worker's on a crane enjoying their lunch on a tower block . I grew up watching Fred , he was an icon , a true renaissance man . The type that won both world wars . 😊😊
15:50 Massive protein injection at breakfast time: the full English breakfast.