Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Sept 13, 2019 13:13:27 GMT
He was on tv quite a bit for a fairly long time but easily the best of the various films and programmes about him was the original hour long film with the above title, first shown in September 79. It showed him knocking down the chimney at Lilac Mill, at Shaw, near Oldham as well as work on the steeple at Bolton parish church. The later films I didn't think were quite as good, maybe you have to be from Lancashire to get stuff like Fred Dibnah and chimneys etc!
My mum and gran both worked in the Lancashire textile industry and it was huge in the area I come from, I just rewatched the 1979 film and its another reminder of the industrial past we have lost.
One episode from the later series involving Fred I do remember was where he went to Blackpool for his holidays and his wife and kids were on the beach while he was knocking down a chimney there!
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Post by Gene Hunt on Sept 13, 2019 14:02:55 GMT
Fred Dibnah was one of a kind. I've been to his house in Radcliffe Road many times to show people where he lived. I met Fred a few years before he passed away. I was introduced by my mate Bernie who was in the film Spring & Port Wine. He was a genuine bloke and lived for his steam engine. In fact, I took my daughter to see where Fred's house was earlier this year as all my kids are fascinated by his steeplejacking exploits. While we were there, Freds pal Alf Molyneux turned up (you'll see Alf in most of the later years video footage of Fred). I also took her to see India Mill up in Darwen while we were in the area. I'll post a couple of photos up later.
There is quite a lot of FD stuff on youtube and it's all well worth watching.
Gene.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Sept 13, 2019 14:09:41 GMT
Yes, I ran into Fred once at the east lancs railway and he was a good bloke. I remember his mate Alf, who was in some of the later films, I think he was an ex miner who was helping him when he started digging a coal mine in his garden.
The chimney at India Mill in Darwen is quite something, it's a copy of the campanile Bell tower in Venice.
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Stan
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Post by Stan on Sept 13, 2019 15:03:30 GMT
Firstly, is there any retro topic that Gene cannot give an impressive insight too?!
Fully agree that the various YouTube videos are well worth watching.
A real time capsule into a bygone era.
Fred's ongoing commentary appears to be unscripted, but reveals a strong technical knowledge, practical application and opnions on a plethora of subjects.
Watching now is reminiscent of John Noakes climbing Nelson's column. It just seems so dangerous.
Anyway, thanks for creating another worthwhile thread.
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Sept 13, 2019 15:22:41 GMT
Fred was great! I loved watching him on BBC2 during the 80s - and it still frightens me, he could just climb a 200ft chimney without any form of safety harness.
I worked on something with the camera man Martin Lightning in the early 90s; and I was always intrigued just how he got his shots used in the series - bearing in mind, he was using a 16mm Arriflex camera (about the same weight as about 3 or house bricks). I thought he did it all from a helicopter...
Aparently not; he climbed the same ladders and scaffolding, with his equipment, as did the sound recordest. The Director however played chicken and stopped at ground level.
Fred was a legend, and knew his beans. I loved the Steeplejack series, it following the refurbishment of the traction engine and the construction of his engine house.
Fred was in the right place, at demolition sites he could salvage all sorts from old factories. Nowadays you'd be nicked for looting, trespassing, some made up anti-terrorist law, vandalism or some poncy H&S law.
Has anyone seen the episode with the Concrete chimney that fell down while he was drilling it out? It was (I think at and old Power Stn at Canvey Island). The entire thing collapsed while he and his crew were drilling it out.
He ran out of the away, as the dust cleared, he lit a woodbine and said "See my point about concrete.. you can't trust it" And then retired to an afternoon in the Pub....
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Sept 13, 2019 16:59:26 GMT
Thanks Sparky, I was wondering how it was filmed, respect to the cameraman who followed Fred up those chimneys! I find the Lancashire textile industry interesting, I think the mills were very impressive buildings, especially the late 19th and early 20th century ones, they all followed a similar pattern, red brick, with a square water tower at one corner, which always had the name of the mill, eg, Dawn, Lilac, Hartford etc picked out in white bricks, a chimney and boiler house. There was, and still is, a big concentration of them around Shaw, Crompton and Royton near Oldham, some still survive and have been converted to other uses.
It was the first big industry to start up during the industrial revolution, and was the first one to go, it's decline started really in the 1930s with cheap foreign imports. A few were still working just into the 80s, the last spinning mill in Radcliffe, Pioneer Mill, closed in 1980.
My mum worked in the office at one, and my gran was on the looms as a cotton spinner, one thing the women who worked in them learned to do was lip read, so they could communicate over the noise. They then used to mouth the words if conversation turned to any slightly embarrassing stuff, like toilets etc! Lea Dawson picked up on this and used it in his sketches with Roy Barraclough where they dressed as women.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Sept 13, 2019 18:21:14 GMT
Always felt a bit sorry for his wife, I seem to remember she always looked a bit downtrodden. He was very good at technical drawing I remember. Also recall the clip of him in a graveyard that local kids had vandalised.
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Sept 13, 2019 20:24:59 GMT
Always felt a bit sorry for his wife, I seem to remember she always looked a bit downtrodden. He was very good at technical drawing I remember. Also recall the clip of him in a graveyard that local kids had vandalised. Yes, I always felt sorry for his first wife. All she cared about was her family.
There was one episode in the 1980s series where she pestered Fred to take them on holiday. Eventually Fred gave in and arranged a holiday in Blackpool - literally just up the road; but only because he had done a deal with a metal working firm - where they would machine a part for his steam engine, in return he would demolish a small chimney for them.
I'll never forget his kids sat in the Landrover watching, while his wife stands in the pouring rain, hoisting up ladders to him - on what was supposed to be a family holiday. In a rather black way, I found it amusing - though felt sorry for her.
I could sit and watch back to back episodes of Fred discussing Victorian Architecture, Engineering for days - he was a truly fascinating person.
I couldn't believe that the Camera Man actually climbed the chimney ladders, with his equipment - I often thought - in that position; would I have done it. I'd have said "Yes" and then bottled out when I looked up the chimney and the ladders vanishing above me...
Thing is - Fred knew what he was doing, he had faith and confidence in his work, equipment and people he worked with.
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Post by Gene Hunt on Sept 13, 2019 20:54:04 GMT
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Post by Sparky on Sept 14, 2019 7:01:47 GMT
Great Pictures Gene. I love the small chimney he built in his back garden, and the fact he had a metal workshop that was more or less totally steam powered. Didn't he have a Pit Head there too?
It's sad looking at those photos, knowing he's no longer with us.
That Chimney at India Mill still gives me the creeps - especially the section at the top where the ladders stick out about 6ft. Yikes.
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