Fred Dibnah

Statue of Fred Dibnah

Fred Dibnah MBE (28 April 1938 – 6 November 2004), born in Bolton, Lancashire, was an English steeplejack, engineer and eccentric who became a television personality, a cult figure and, latterly, a national institution.

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"Did yer like that!?"
" Mmmm. Aye. Oh aye. Y'know?"
"A man who says he feels no fear is either a fool or a liar."
"I realise that steam engines aren't everyone's cup of tea. But they're what made England great."
"The modern world stinks."
"We've become a nation of con men, living by selling double glazing to each other."
"Steam engines don't answer back. You can belt them with a hammer and they say nowt."
"I set out as a steeplejack in my youth to preserve chimneys. I've finished by knocking most of them down."
"Height gives you a wonderful feeling of grandeur. You're the king of the castle up here."
"I have a wash more now than I used to y'know... I have a shower everynight."
"I'm just a bum who climbs chimneys."
"Anybody who destroys anything made of stone should be prosecuted. It is not all beautiful, but it took a man all day to make one stone."
"Steeplejacking's a bit of a spasmodic job, so you can play with your steam engine instead. It's a bit like being very rich."
"If you make one mistake, it's half a day out with the undertaker."
"It's a funny thing this celebrity. If you don't wave back you're a miserable bugger, if you do wave back you're a big-headed bugger. I don't know."
"The thing is nowadays, you'll have 20 men working, yet 60 men telling them 'You can't do that, you ain't got a tin hat on'".
"Teaching boys to bake cakes? That's no way to maintain an industrial empire."
"By 'eck it were grand."
"Them fancy London types don't know the pleasure of eating chips with fingers"
"That's Bolton's biggest chimney that... and I climbed it for a ten bob wager. Never did get the ten bob though."
Fred also previously received two honorary doctorates ..... They were both given by the relevant engineering faculties, but Fred always told people that they were for "back street mechanicing".
"I've never fell off a big chimney. You'd only fall off one of them once."
(Whilst demonstrating how to ladder a chimney) "As you get a bit higher up, the holes have a tendency to get a bit deeper; I think it's called fear"
(About Hard Hats) "These tin hats get in the way a bit" "I shouldn't think for the life of me that if the whole thing came down it'd stop you getting a shorter neck"

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Fred Dibnah