Fred Dibnah
English steeplejack and television personality, with a keen interest in mechanical engineering
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.
UnsourcedEdit
- "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"
External linksEdit
- Sheila Dibnah talks about Fred
- The Fred Dibnah Memorial Site
- Fred Dibnah's website
- Fred Dibnah on CultIdols.com
- The Fred Dibnah Fanclub - Lots of biographical detail, audio clips of Fred talking about his life, and photos
- A brief biography of Fred Dibnah
- Meet the original reality TV star (The Westmorland Gazette)
- Fred Dibnah - Some Personal photographic memories.
- Fred Dibnah Tribute site with many pictures
- Bolton Evening News tribute
- Fred Dibnah's Made in Britain (BBC History TV Series)
- TV's Fred Dibnah loses cancer battle (BBC News)
- Fred Dibnah Obituary (BBC News)
- Fred Dibnah's Obituary in The Times - probably his most biographically informative obituary on the web
- Fred Dibnah Obituary: Steeplejack who became a television celebrity (The Guardian)
- Obituary: Steeplejack Fred Dibnah dies, aged 66 (The Telegraph)