I was lucky enough to meet him as a kid, went around his back garden with my dad, he was a friend of my grandads, he was also friends with everyone in Bolton. We lost a legend
he was right. when I was growing up we had mole catchers and rabbit catchers, pale and spar makers in the woods, old boys with even older tractors baling hay and working deep in the woods all day, farm hands who could still milk cows by hand and tickle trout in the river, the odd, half mad character who couldn't work but talked to himself sitting by the river or on the wall by the church most of the day. Old ladies living in almost forgotten cottages with grimy windows and a garden full of trees where their husbands used to grow vegetables, that became Tasteful Towers with three stories and a swimming pool in the 1970's. All gone now.
@@bellerophonchallen8861 When I was growing up we had the nail extension repair lady, the car interior specialist, the male beauty salon owner and beard trimmer, the tanfastic tanning boutique officiator, the alucan collector, the mysterious worldphone card salesman from Abujabi, the strange photographer who hung round playgrounds, the plastic gardener and gnome painter, the openly atheist gay vicar, the first and only female ice cream van driver and the professional solvent sniffer who claimed he sailed back from the Falklands in a toy dingy from TJ Hughes. All gone now.
Have to admit. Allowing the chimney it's last chance to draw smoke is a far fitting way to demolish Ratherthan two days packing explosive for a two second event. Fred know how to do it right
I found it quite sad when he was talking about all the chimneys disappearing. You're watching someone who's acknowledging that a trade he'd spent his entire life mastering is now no longer needed. He was a truly beautiful soul. RIP Fred
Think it’s partly also the fact he grew up surrounded by these monuments of the victorians, when started whats demolishing one or two chimneys in a city of thousands. By the end though, his work was done and it must’ve saddened him to no longer have anything to look up at to remember the great engineers of the past
Moves quickly and forgets all, we talk about 4 men from thousands of year agos (generally speaking the population are not history buffs) but there won't be men like that again. @@luminousfractal420
Exploring Birminghams Black country by canal boat is still a great way to see some of the remnants of the Great Industrial Revolution. Much has survived and much has been lost. But the canals are very much alive and from Chester to London you can still find wonderful reminders of England's Industrial past as you explore the inland waterways.
I like that Fred appreciated the art and labor it took to construct those chimneys and deconstructed them with equal art and dignity. The smoke coming out of the chimney is a fitting end to it's dismantling. Hats off to Fred
Yes Peter, you and Fred are right. It's sad when you think of all the hard graft that was put in to build these things just to be demolished. Same goes for old railway lines that were painstakingly constructed then closed years later, abandoned and forgotten. As Fred said, "Good old England will ever come back to them days again." RIP Fred. RIP England.
When I started work there were characters like Fred in all walks of life everywhere. Sadly now like his chimneys they are all gone and life is very dull without them.Very sad.
They knew something we lost today. Hard to put a finger on it. Maybe sometimes faster isn't better, bigger isn't better, just knowledge to do it right which takes time to learn.
so true, I worked at a company in Clifton Junction (Swinton and Pendlebury) and in the 40's a bloke who worked on the tip built up a small footpath into a road way for the scrap wagon, over the years he laid thousands of bricks he found that had been dumped and used it as hardcore and it was used for years, and got the nickname Lol's Lane after his name. No one would dream of doing that today.
Fred use to hate felling chimneys! everyone thinks he use to love it, but he didn't! he always preferred working on them and conserving Britain's great industrial past!
What Fred really hated, was he knew what would replace them. Housing & retail parks. What Fred knew, it was the death of the U.K. as a country that did it all. Those chimneys meant industry. & knocking them down, meant the death of Britain
Only recently I was watching how he got the ladders up a chimney and put the scaffold around at the top.You watch a bloke do that and think. Engineer for sure. Clever man.
@LordGoomba I began my career in the mid 80,s in construction.Health and safety was just starting but basically it was still common sense that was the universal approach to not getting hurt.Health and safety on big builds must in itself cost alot of time and money now.Also if you got hurt at work then you couldnt go legal and claim compensation.That just didnt exist.
EmptyGlass99 Yea slag heaps pollution pumping chimneys an the misery of workin in such conditions. People talk of the good old days that’s because they never lived in the good old fukn days. Times change move on
I don't care for that statue either.. I agree it doesn't look like 'im at all .. My idea would be something similar to the look on the still shot in the Title's of the original Fred. series
@@ranvirbharj2340 Statue of a man sitting atop a long cylindrical object Innocent concepts can really easily go horribly wrong when the public's imagination is allowed to run free on your idea
If Fred were alive and well in 2020, they'd parade him on Morning TV and Phillip Scragfield and Holly Wigglebody would be shaking their heads in disapproval and publicly shaming him over some comment he'd made. I'm just not made for these times either.
William Blake saw a bit of the real England dying with every chimney that was built to belch out black smoke and consume child labour. Hence his question "and was Jerusalem builded here among those dark, satanic mills"
broke this mans heart to bring these relics of the past down i had the pleasure to meet him in the late 80s it was men like him that built this country shame the next generations have ruined it
+Robert Oliver The next generation is saving the lives of hundreds of millions of people down the road at the cost of a few thousand businessmen's coin purses in the short term.
saving lives do you even live on the same planet ? the human race is a virus that consumes every vital thing on the planet we are dead its that simple it will just be about when......this planet will rid itself of the destructive people that dwell on it, that eat away all resources. We have fake money that runs the world and it means nothing global economy is collapsing at a huge rate but the idiots of the planet think money is the be all and end all..let me tell you long after money is gone food will be what wars are fought over
There is something truly poetic about his method. Looking at the stack from a distance giving its last plume of smoke before it drops is tribute to the stack itself, and its history. Certainly a legend : D
You can’t beat jumping to jumping to conclusions can you. I also just assumed that everyone in a high viz jacket must be ‘elf n safety’ too. I always think we should be less safe and more unhealthy.
Fred left at the right time - he saw almost everything he knew disappear and you could see the hurt on his face at the end. Look at our society now. A cess pit of vacuous celebrity and cheap thrills.
Maybe social media will be demolished one day, a grand reset, we all get back to living contented with what we have instead of being attention seeking show offs.
Just started watching these videos had no idea who he was. I must say Fred was an amazing man who deserves to be remembered. RIP sir. Happy new year from Phoenix AZ
JC THEROD Old Fred was a British legend. He only started off on a programme like “ A day in the life of...” an got his own series out of it lasted a few years. It was real entertainment on British TV instead of all the cooking an gardening an doing up old houses shite that we av now. Never mind don’t get me started on that subject we’ll be here all night. Hope ur well an safe over in America mate stay home stay clean stay safe an let’s hope we make it through this pandemic Mick Liverpool UK 🇬🇧
@@mikeymc3094 I appreciate the kind words, My friend and yes i totally agree on all the garbage reality TV programs on the tube. I stopped watching Television years ago, ill only watch major sporting events sometimes. I think guys like Fred are the remnants of what England used to be, hell what real men used to be. Hey you're from Liverpool home of the Beatles that's cool, they are one of my favorites. Keep up the good work my friend and yes lets stay safe and wait this thing out. JCR Phoneix AZ
@@JCtheROD Hey Mick, just been reading the posts between you and Mick. I see you are a Beatles fan, well I am also in Liverpool, I live about a mile from Penny Lane and about three miles from Strawberry Fields. I totally agree with what you both said about the Tv, just garbage. Hope things are good in sunny Arizona. Take care and stay safe mate 😊👍.
Watching this brings back memories of me staying with my grandad and watching Fred Dibnah with him. Good times shame they don't show more him on TV anymore. I could sit for hours watching him.
Fitting that the man who felled so many of these giant monuments to Victorian engineering had such an understanding and appreciation of their works and vision. Like the reaper really. He never found any joy in their destruction, but took pride in his work, and always went about it in the 'right way' - giving those stacks one last chance to draw breath. My granddad always used to say the man was riveting, and not just because he must surely be riveted together!
I'm surprised he made it to 66 for how hard he worked plus sucking in all that soot and brick dust in all weathers and smoked like a trooper. Fair play to the guy. 👍
Fred was such a character ! You can see the care he had for those chimneys.his total appreciation for the work that it took constructing them all those years ago,
I'm 26 and to me watching Fred to me was like watching a true craftsmen, there are very few if any people that apply such artistry to bringing down chimneys these days and he just had a working class charm, he hated destroying them but he did it in such a way that when everyone else was operating their modern machines he was there with hammers posts and wedges and his flat cap schooling idiots, I wish I could have met him but he will always be a legend. RIP Fred 😢 there's never going to be another
I once met Fred as he was going over the M62 in his traction engine he was towing his caravan it would have been in the early 90s a great ENGLISH MAN sadly not many left now . He could work on anything and what a speaker !! Sadly missed our Fred . RIP
I grew up, finished an apprenticeship and studied engineering in Bolton. Since then I have worked and lived all over the world for decades now and thought I don't relate much anymore to my old home town anymore. But when I hear Boltoners speaking, like Fred, salt of the earth types like him, it sends me back and I realise that I'm still one of them. I've even kept my accent and refuse to change it even if I do sometimes get odd looks from people who don't know any better. And I still dream of pies, steak and kidney has always been my favorite, pudding and chips and just chips soaked in vinigar with lots of salt. They don't offer that where I live, you lot in Bolton don't know how good you've got it.
So sad that we have neither Fred or the age of British manufacturing now. We were world leaders but successive governments have let the country fall to it's knees. RIP Fred Dibnah and Great Britain.
Park Mill (No 2) Bleasdale St Royton was a beautiful building I worked there in the 90s and ironically live where it was demolished. It was owned by the Shiloh group which was a Royton owned cotton syndicate and the last mill in the borough to actually still spin cotton up till it’s closure in 2001 I have wonderful memories working there with some very special people gone but never forgotten along with the gentleman himself RIP Fred ❤️
The one and only Fred Dibnah, a man who was multi skilled, hard working, courageous and very knowledgeable about construction, demolition and engineering! A highly talented and genial man, whose TV programmes popularised engineering by explaining things in a very down to earth way how things were made in the past. He was a true hero in every sense of the word! He should have been knighted!
God bless Fred. There will never be anyone close to what he has done. A one in a million type of guy. A hard working and very modest man who was very skillful in many ways. I'm young enough to be his son but I find his vids addictive and have watched the same ones many times over
only fred could bring down a chimney with such elegance ,and has a thought for the hard work that went into building it you can see it from his face. im with yah fred.
Time moves on and old tech goes but Fred was one of those oldschool guys had so much skill and knowledge. Respect him because his like are gone, now you google shit. RIP Fred, you made us remember.
The Great Fred, a good man, fearless, a positive attitude, skilled, creative, brilliant and when he was in his prime he was a strong man. They were better days when men like were around.
Met him several times. A lovely fella and proper old school. I always make a point of paying my respects at Tonge cemetery whenever I’m up that way. Rest easy chap.
The word "legend" is often branded around far to frequently nowadays but I would certainly put Fred in that category. He really is a LEGEND! What a man. ❤
It brings back happy memories of me watching you bring down the chimney and repair them ,such a happy go lucky fella your still missed Fred but you live on in your videos ..R.I.P MR DIBNAH X
A different generation, and one to likely never be seen again. You could hear the emotion in his voice when talking about them. Fred truly was a national treasure!
There will never be another one like Fred. He taught and showed modern generations, just how things were done in the past. I always wanted to meet him, but never got that chance. Legend, Hero, seems hardly fitting to such a fantastic man.
Kinda tragic watching the 1980s show, and seeing how many factories used to operate just from his vantage point on a chimney. And thinking how in the last 40 years nearly all of them have closed.
We need more Freds in the modern world a man that got things done ...lot's of things and not a single mobile phone , social media post or computer to help him just old fashioned mans ingenuity and basic engineering . RIP Fred a great Englishman .
David Seager I deliver around Nelson and brierfield, there's still grand old mills still standing and in use. No chimneys around but still they stand. Proper stone giants
All empires. However ours was the first to steal resources on an industrial scale during the industrial revolution. Indian GDP before we arrived was somewhere in the region of a third of the world's. At independence it was 4%.
The video's about Fred's life and work truly touched me. Top bloke and truly a great example for all, too see him get older and put on weight broke my heart. RIP Fred.
It is painful to old buildings destroyed, especially when they’re such an integral part of cultural identity like the industrial chimneys in Lancashire. The flipside though is that these mills and other Victorian industrial buildings were sources of misery for the working classes of the time. I think Fred realised this too.
I think that's a bit dishonest. Sure they were sources of misery early on. But it was work there or starve at the time. And over the years conditions improved and they did become decent places to work. Communities were better off having the industry there. Can't imagine anyone but the nimbys were happy when they closed up and were torn down.
Fred Dibnah was an inspiration to so many of us honest straight laced and hard working class he was passionate about his work be it repairing church spires or repairing,demolishing chimneys and his love of steam engines,nostalgia and the industrial bygone era id met Fred numerous times over the years always a pleasure i was at Park Mill that day there will never be anyone like him again god bless him R.I.P
Like he states he saw the hard work put into building it, the hard work when people worked on the plant or place. And he gave it respect when he brought them down wether brick by brick or by the fire pit to cast one last puff of smoke before it crumbles
Always a hero of mine and my dad's. We both would have loved to have met him. As stated here Fred was an incredible person and a national treasure. They don't make 'em like that any more! RIP Fred x
His house should have been made into a museum of victorian feats of great engineering. The council could have purchased it and made it into a fantastic heritage centre to teach youngsters of today about the great industrial past of a proud nation leading the way all over the world.
Sad thing is theres no room for Dibnahs in the modern world now he would be looked upon as an unsafe contractor rather then someone who deeply understood what he did
I watched all of the Fred Dibnah videos on RUclips, I never heard of him before. Fascinating man and very very clever. He was right, England will never recover back to the glory days on a great industry as it’s backbone, that’s all sadly gone now. I suspect Fred’s last wife was a gold digger and wanted the limelight with him and funds, so sad. The world needs more Fred Dibnah !
A true character from a bygone era , loved the colourful way Fred discribed things and his work and passion for steam engines . He probably up their now chatting away with Brunnel . RiP Fred Dibnar .
Just the greatest human being ever,I had my photograph,taken with me when he downed ,Kent mill chimney,chadderton ,oldham,a,true genious, andj a real character,this world could do with more likje him, god bless
He’s a great character who was self taught,educating us all about his passion and enthusiasm for steam and traction engines who’s presenting skills made the layman understand and make equally as enthusiastic.On top of this his steeple jacking career adds more interest for people who again are drawn into Fred’s world....Sadly like those days,Fred has gone(RIP),but his memory and passion is captured for us all to listen and watch his life,presentations,witty stories and educating steam traction stories and these days gone by and all preserved on film. Where he lived and possessions,some now gone,should have been preserved by Bolton for the world. Thanks Fred for you life along with best wishes to all his family and many many friends the world over. We miss you! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👍🏴😉
When the narrator said we are poorer for the loss of characters like Fred..He never spoke better words.
Johnny Ball...Zoe Ball's dad...
I was lucky enough to meet him as a kid, went around his back garden with my dad, he was a friend of my grandads, he was also friends with everyone in Bolton. We lost a legend
he was right. when I was growing up we had mole catchers and rabbit catchers, pale and spar makers in the woods, old boys with even older tractors baling hay and working deep in the woods all day, farm hands who could still milk cows by hand and tickle trout in the river, the odd, half mad character who couldn't work but talked to himself sitting by the river or on the wall by the church most of the day. Old ladies living in almost forgotten cottages with grimy windows and a garden full of trees where their husbands used to grow vegetables, that became Tasteful Towers with three stories and a swimming pool in the 1970's. All gone now.
@@bellerophonchallen8861 When I was growing up we had the nail extension repair lady, the car interior specialist, the male beauty salon owner and beard trimmer, the tanfastic tanning boutique officiator, the alucan collector, the mysterious worldphone card salesman from Abujabi, the strange photographer who hung round playgrounds, the plastic gardener and gnome painter, the openly atheist gay vicar, the first and only female ice cream van driver and the professional solvent sniffer who claimed he sailed back from the Falklands in a toy dingy from TJ Hughes.
All gone now.
Now look at what the media says our "strengths" are... marxism sucks.
Have to admit. Allowing the chimney it's last chance to draw smoke is a far fitting way to demolish Ratherthan two days packing explosive for a two second event. Fred know how to do it right
Was just thinking this exact thought - sad but fitting.
Absolutely agree
A new generation got to see smoke from a chimney like that, that never would have.
What a legend of a man Fred !
Yeah, same here. It does seem... somehow right.
Amen. Awesome comment
Quiet poetic
I found it quite sad when he was talking about all the chimneys disappearing. You're watching someone who's acknowledging that a trade he'd spent his entire life mastering is now no longer needed. He was a truly beautiful soul. RIP Fred
Think it’s partly also the fact he grew up surrounded by these monuments of the victorians, when started whats demolishing one or two chimneys in a city of thousands. By the end though, his work was done and it must’ve saddened him to no longer have anything to look up at to remember the great engineers of the past
In my mid 40's now and the city from my youth is all built over. I guess we always feel it will last forever, time moves swiftly
Moves quickly and forgets all, we talk about 4 men from thousands of year agos (generally speaking the population are not history buffs) but there won't be men like that again. @@luminousfractal420
@@jamesh1758 peoples in the past are complaining about those chimneys and ugly industry and peoples from today romantize it
The older Fred got the more he seemed saddened by the disappearance of England’s fine history
Exploring Birminghams Black country by canal boat is still a great way to see some of the remnants of the Great Industrial Revolution. Much has survived and much has been lost. But the canals are very much alive and from Chester to London you can still find wonderful reminders of England's Industrial past as you explore the inland waterways.
I like that Fred appreciated the art and labor it took to construct those chimneys and deconstructed them with equal art and dignity. The smoke coming out of the chimney is a fitting end to it's dismantling. Hats off to Fred
Yes Peter, you and Fred are right. It's sad when you think of all the hard graft that was put in to build these things just to be demolished. Same goes for old railway lines that were painstakingly constructed then closed years later, abandoned and forgotten. As Fred said, "Good old England will ever come back to them days again." RIP Fred. RIP England.
The man is a Legend
He would repair them as well on he dropped in 1992 was one he had repointed 25 years before
and to think he was on VERY strong pain killers and it was 6 moths before he died R.I.P. our fred
R I P
you should of seen him 8 moths before
Cicholas Nage Yeah
Too bad! 😢
They don't make em like that anymore.
When I started work there were characters like Fred in all walks of life everywhere. Sadly now like his chimneys they are all gone and life is very dull without them.Very sad.
So so true
The chimneys do exist
They knew something we lost today. Hard to put a finger on it. Maybe sometimes faster isn't better, bigger isn't better, just knowledge to do it right which takes time to learn.
@@rxonmymind8362 They did what they had to do and they were proud of it.
so true, I worked at a company in Clifton Junction (Swinton and Pendlebury) and in the 40's a bloke who worked on the tip built up a small footpath into a road way for the scrap wagon, over the years he laid thousands of bricks he found that had been dumped and used it as hardcore and it was used for years, and got the nickname Lol's Lane after his name. No one would dream of doing that today.
I'm American and I really appreciate Fred Dibnah. A lot of old guys in Pittsburgh were just like him back in the day.
We're glad he's appreciated abroad; he seems to travel well even after he's passed on, and more people are stumbling on these videos every day.
Gotta love Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
Look at it blowing smoke out for the last & final time in ages , its final cry to say thank you for a good life
The man was an absolute English legend rest in peace my friend with Brunel
Fred use to hate felling chimneys! everyone thinks he use to love it, but he didn't! he always preferred working on them and conserving Britain's great industrial past!
So thats why he spent a decade wanting to be a steeplejack before he become one.... right....
...what?
@@OffGridInvestor what? Haha elaborate
Steeplejacks generally repair not demolish. It is true he disliked having to knock them down.
What Fred really hated, was he knew what would replace them.
Housing & retail parks.
What Fred knew, it was the death of the U.K. as a country that did it all. Those chimneys meant industry.
& knocking them down, meant the death of Britain
I cant believe it nearly 20 years since he died, here's to your memory Fred, a proper steeplejack and engineer in the true sense of the word..
Only recently I was watching how he got the ladders up a chimney and put the scaffold around at the top.You watch a bloke do that and think. Engineer for sure. Clever man.
@LordGoomba I began my career in the mid 80,s in construction.Health and safety was just starting but basically it was still common sense that was the universal approach to not getting hurt.Health and safety on big builds must in itself cost alot of time and money now.Also if you got hurt at work then you couldnt go legal and claim compensation.That just didnt exist.
@LordGoomba I am with you.
He didnt miss much, anything good anyways.
"You could see 200 chimneys from the top of one slag heap in Bolton". If ever a sentence summed up Britain's industrial heritage, that's it.
you can see 200 mosques now.
😂😂😂👍🏻
EmptyGlass99
Yea slag heaps pollution pumping chimneys an the misery of workin in such conditions. People talk of the good old days that’s because they never lived in the good old fukn days. Times change move on
@@mikeymc3094 thank you! Someone here with an ounce of common sense!
MadzeR
Who d fk u call pal tosspot Suck On dis🍤 PAL
he still is a national treasure i miss Fred they dont make em like him anymore
It’s almost like Fred could see his own ending coming when he described this being the last chimney. He was a great man who should be admired by all!!
Sure he had known by this time, that his cancer give him not much longer.
Hopefully we all live long enough to ponder our last chimney
"To the pub"
Would've loved a pint with Mr Dibnah
Fred nodding his head brought a tear to my eye
Same.
Great way to end the video
ME TOO, RIP Fred, What a legend!
He deserves more than a statue in Bolton that’s for sure.
The statue they did have, made him look like a farmer.
I don't care for that statue either.. I agree it doesn't look like 'im at all .. My idea would be something similar to the look on the still shot in the Title's of the original Fred. series
@@JoanneCRL Everyone stops by that statue and had a gander though😀
never seen the statue, hope its him on top of s chimney
@@ranvirbharj2340
Statue of a man sitting atop a long cylindrical object
Innocent concepts can really easily go horribly wrong when the public's imagination is allowed to run free on your idea
Guy Martin and Fred together on a series about engineering would have been perfect tv. Fact.
If Fred were alive and well in 2020, they'd parade him on Morning TV and Phillip Scragfield and Holly Wigglebody would be shaking their heads in disapproval and publicly shaming him over some comment he'd made.
I'm just not made for these times either.
with james may
Funny you say that, I had the exact same thoughts.
@@scladoffle2472 no it's societys problem, it has gone too far.
Facts
A bit of the real England died with every one that fell, and Fred knew it.
William Blake saw a bit of the real England dying with every chimney that was built to belch out black smoke and consume child labour.
Hence his question
"and was Jerusalem builded here
among those dark, satanic mills"
broke this mans heart to bring these relics of the past down i had the pleasure to meet him in the late 80s it was men like him that built this country shame the next generations have ruined it
Sure the next generation may of ruined it but they only did it in the best interests of the generation after that and those still to come.
+Robert Oliver The next generation is saving the lives of hundreds of millions of people down the road at the cost of a few thousand businessmen's coin purses in the short term.
saving lives do you even live on the same planet ? the human race is a virus that consumes every vital thing on the planet we are dead its that simple it will just be about when......this planet will rid itself of the destructive people that dwell on it, that eat away all resources. We have fake money that runs the world and it means nothing global economy is collapsing at a huge rate but the idiots of the planet think money is the be all and end all..let me tell you long after money is gone food will be what wars are fought over
Jason Travor he doesn’t even understand that he has misaligned his whole argument let him be
I would have relished the chance to shake his hand he's a proper man god bless him and his family
There is a rare sight Fred in a viz jacket.
I can imagine what he said when they handed it to him
He wore it inside out in protest
Mill House still no hard hat though 😆
It was to warn people of his presence.
@@johnathanrobinson8016 the damn health council!f em
Stumbled across these videos just a month ago. Changed me just a little, like some things do to all of us. In a good way, the best way really.
There is something truly poetic about his method. Looking at the stack from a distance giving its last plume of smoke before it drops is tribute to the stack itself, and its history. Certainly a legend : D
I love how Fred has to tell the council and health and safety idiots to get out the way!
Tell that to the widows.
True
@@kimchipig hah?
You can’t beat jumping to jumping to conclusions can you. I also just assumed that everyone in a high viz jacket must be ‘elf n safety’ too. I always think we should be less safe and more unhealthy.
We’ll hoist a pint at the pub today for Fred! He was a Man’s Man for sure. RIP F.D.
Fred left at the right time - he saw almost everything he knew disappear and you could see the hurt on his face at the end.
Look at our society now. A cess pit of vacuous celebrity and cheap thrills.
Well said
,,,, and under a world-wide lockdown...
Man was a legend, we need more people like him
You are correct. But we must rebuild it, never give up trying to rebuild it. Brexit, good or bad, is a reset button.
Maybe social media will be demolished one day, a grand reset, we all get back to living contented with what we have instead of being attention seeking show offs.
Just started watching these videos had no idea who he was. I must say Fred was an amazing man who deserves to be remembered. RIP sir. Happy new year from Phoenix AZ
JC THEROD
Old Fred was a British legend. He only started off on a programme like “ A day in the life of...” an got his own series out of it lasted a few years. It was real entertainment on British TV instead of all the cooking an gardening an doing up old houses shite that we av now. Never mind don’t get me started on that subject we’ll be here all night. Hope ur well an safe over in America mate stay home stay clean stay safe an let’s hope we make it through this pandemic
Mick Liverpool UK 🇬🇧
@@mikeymc3094 I appreciate the kind words, My friend and yes i totally agree on all the garbage reality TV programs on the tube. I stopped watching Television years ago, ill only watch major sporting events sometimes. I think guys like Fred are the remnants of what England used to be, hell what real men used to be. Hey you're from Liverpool home of the Beatles that's cool, they are one of my favorites. Keep up the good work my friend and yes lets stay safe and wait this thing out.
JCR Phoneix AZ
@@JCtheROD Hey Mick, just been reading the posts between you and Mick. I see you are a Beatles fan, well I am also in Liverpool, I live about a mile from Penny Lane and about three miles from Strawberry Fields. I totally agree with what you both said about the Tv, just garbage. Hope things are good in sunny Arizona. Take care and stay safe mate 😊👍.
Found these films about Fred today and what a cool dude he was!!!!
Sane
1:52 "Yeah I don't think, ah, good 'ol England will ever come back to that days again.."
How right you are, Fred..
Watching this brings back memories of me staying with my grandad and watching Fred Dibnah with him. Good times shame they don't show more him on TV anymore. I could sit for hours watching him.
I agree, this is the way to let a chimney die, drawing smoke as it was intended for to the very end.
She's going down smokin'.
Fitting that the man who felled so many of these giant monuments to Victorian engineering had such an understanding and appreciation of their works and vision. Like the reaper really. He never found any joy in their destruction, but took pride in his work, and always went about it in the 'right way' - giving those stacks one last chance to draw breath.
My granddad always used to say the man was riveting, and not just because he must surely be riveted together!
Proper old school gent..."Give 'em 'ell up there" Fred!Your never forgotten!
All that knowledge, all that experience gone. R.I.P. Fred.
The shot of him at the end always get me just summed it all up The nod to the camera said it all Der ye like that Id be seeing ya
We need more people like him who just get the job done.legend
Watched 6 episodes of Fred last night. What an absolute legend he was. Rip Sir.
I'm surprised he made it to 66 for how hard he worked plus sucking in all that soot and brick dust in all weathers and smoked like a trooper. Fair play to the guy. 👍
Fred was such a character ! You can see the care he had for those chimneys.his total appreciation for the work that it took constructing them all those years ago,
Let people have one last minute to say goodbye?!!🥵🥵🥵.Let a chimney that is not alive and destory the air😎😎😎
I'm 26 and to me watching Fred to me was like watching a true craftsmen, there are very few if any people that apply such artistry to bringing down chimneys these days and he just had a working class charm, he hated destroying them but he did it in such a way that when everyone else was operating their modern machines he was there with hammers posts and wedges and his flat cap schooling idiots, I wish I could have met him but he will always be a legend. RIP Fred 😢 there's never going to be another
God rest you Fred. The world today is a totally different one that you left behind 14 years ago. RIP
I once met Fred as he was going over the M62 in his traction engine he was towing his caravan it would have been in the early 90s a great ENGLISH MAN sadly not many left now . He could work on anything and what a speaker !! Sadly missed our Fred . RIP
It’s such a symbolic event. Fred’s last ever chimney. Thanks for sharing this.
I grew up, finished an apprenticeship and studied engineering in Bolton. Since then I have worked and lived all over the world for decades now and thought I don't relate much anymore to my old home town anymore. But when I hear Boltoners speaking, like Fred, salt of the earth types like him, it sends me back and I realise that I'm still one of them. I've even kept my accent and refuse to change it even if I do sometimes get odd looks from people who don't know any better. And I still dream of pies, steak and kidney has always been my favorite, pudding and chips and just chips soaked in vinigar with lots of salt. They don't offer that where I live, you lot in Bolton don't know how good you've got it.
From Tonge Moor with best wishes
So sad that we have neither Fred or the age of British manufacturing now. We were world leaders but successive governments have let the country fall to it's knees. RIP Fred Dibnah and Great Britain.
All pissed away for the rich elites to import a bunch of crap from china. Like kids toys with lead paint on them.
he was my idol, loved watching him on telly when i was growing up
Could sit and listen to him for hours, such a wealth of knowledge.
Park Mill (No 2) Bleasdale St Royton was a beautiful building I worked there in the 90s and ironically live where it was demolished.
It was owned by the Shiloh group which was a Royton owned cotton syndicate and the last mill in the borough to actually still spin cotton up till it’s closure in 2001 I have wonderful memories working there with some very special people gone but never forgotten along with the gentleman himself RIP Fred ❤️
You could sit in the pub day and night and listen to Fred tell his tales.
Did you suck him in the man's toilet too?
I never had the privilege of meeting Fred but after watching these RUclips videos it seemed that he lived life to the fullest. R.I.P my good man.
The one and only Fred Dibnah, a man who was multi skilled, hard working, courageous and very knowledgeable about construction, demolition and engineering! A highly talented and genial man, whose TV programmes popularised engineering by explaining things in a very down to earth way how things were made in the past. He was a true hero in every sense of the word! He should have been knighted!
God bless Fred. There will never be anyone close to what he has done. A one in a million type of guy. A hard working and very modest man who was very skillful in many ways. I'm young enough to be his son but I find his vids addictive and have watched the same ones many times over
only fred could bring down a chimney with such elegance ,and has a thought for the hard work that went into building it you can see it from his face. im with yah fred.
Time moves on and old tech goes but Fred was one of those oldschool guys had so much skill and knowledge. Respect him because his like are gone, now you google shit. RIP Fred, you made us remember.
The Great Fred, a good man, fearless, a positive attitude, skilled, creative, brilliant and when he was in his prime he was a strong man.
They were better days when men like were around.
Met him several times. A lovely fella and proper old school. I always make a point of paying my respects at Tonge cemetery whenever I’m up that way. Rest easy chap.
I remember the very first documentary about Fred.Takes me back to a time when all was well in the world. Happy days.
The word "legend" is often branded around far to frequently nowadays but I would certainly put Fred in that category. He really is a LEGEND! What a man. ❤
Fantastic bloke... His type are disappearing sadly.. But a top top fella was FRED DIBNAH... 👍🇬🇧🔝👏👏😇
I was in Bolton in 1982. I imagine it has changed an awful lot since then. I loved the town and the people. Old school, good folks.
It brings back happy memories of me watching you bring down the chimney and repair them ,such a happy go lucky fella your still missed Fred but you live on in your videos ..R.I.P MR DIBNAH X
A different generation, and one to likely never be seen again.
You could hear the emotion in his voice when talking about them.
Fred truly was a national treasure!
Makes you a little sad this, legend for sure....
you will be and are missed Fred. you are what legends are made of RIP
Fred was such a great character and typical of Northern England.
Thanks for posting 👍
Just found these vids on Fred. This guy is great.
His series held my attention. Great entertainment and I watch repeats too. Very satisfying!
There will never be another one like Fred.
He taught and showed modern generations, just how things were done in the past.
I always wanted to meet him, but never got that chance.
Legend, Hero, seems hardly fitting to such a fantastic man.
Brings a tear to my eye
The amount of hard work and bricks put into those stacks..amazing time
Kinda tragic watching the 1980s show, and seeing how many factories used to operate just from his vantage point on a chimney. And thinking how in the last 40 years nearly all of them have closed.
We need more Freds in the modern world a man that got things done ...lot's of things and not a single mobile phone , social media post or computer to help him just old fashioned mans ingenuity and basic engineering . RIP Fred a great Englishman .
I never met this wonderful engineer, yet he is one of the few people i miss most.
Fred Dibnah epitomized the spirit of great working men everywhere who ingeniously and selflessly do their jobs every day.
We better be preserving some of these. From a time when we ruled the world
David Seager I deliver around Nelson and brierfield, there's still grand old mills still standing and in use. No chimneys around but still they stand.
Proper stone giants
Through stealing other people's resources.
@@andylane247 What empire didn’t steal resources?
All empires. However ours was the first to steal resources on an industrial scale during the industrial revolution.
Indian GDP before we arrived was somewhere in the region of a third of the world's. At independence it was 4%.
Fred was one of my heroes had his heart in the right place not many Freds left now !
Fred tellin the "health and safety department" to sod off was proper lovely.
The video's about Fred's life and work truly touched me. Top bloke and truly a great example for all, too see him get older and put on weight broke my heart. RIP Fred.
England once was the workshop of the world an this was part of its end. RIP Fred.
It is painful to old buildings destroyed, especially when they’re such an integral part of cultural identity like the industrial chimneys in Lancashire.
The flipside though is that these mills and other Victorian industrial buildings were sources of misery for the working classes of the time. I think Fred realised this too.
JCBAirmaster73 Absolutely
I think that's a bit dishonest. Sure they were sources of misery early on. But it was work there or starve at the time. And over the years conditions improved and they did become decent places to work. Communities were better off having the industry there. Can't imagine anyone but the nimbys were happy when they closed up and were torn down.
Fred Dibnah was an inspiration to so many of us honest straight laced and hard working class he was passionate about his work be it repairing church spires or repairing,demolishing chimneys and his love of steam engines,nostalgia and the industrial bygone era id met Fred numerous times over the years always a pleasure i was at Park Mill that day there will never be anyone like him again god bless him R.I.P
What a guy. Provided many hours of pleasure. A national treasure!!!!
Absolute legend. Love watching him..Rest in Peace Sir.
Qué capo! Gracias maestro!
One of the few people i could watch for hours, especially when he was on his steam engine
You were the best Fred r.i.p
Where`s Rodger ? I hope we havn`t buried Him........LOL , Classic, what a Great Man Fred was.
Like he states he saw the hard work put into building it, the hard work when people worked on the plant or place. And he gave it respect when he brought them down wether brick by brick or by the fire pit to cast one last puff of smoke before it crumbles
Always a hero of mine and my dad's. We both would have loved to have met him. As stated here Fred was an incredible person and a national treasure. They don't make 'em like that any more! RIP Fred x
His house should have been made into a museum of victorian feats of great engineering. The council could have purchased it and made it into a fantastic heritage centre to teach youngsters of today about the great industrial past of a proud nation leading the way all over the world.
Sad thing is theres no room for Dibnahs in the modern world now he would be looked upon as an unsafe contractor rather then someone who deeply understood what he did
Fred was a fascinating man. I learned so much from his TV shows.
I watched all of the Fred Dibnah videos on RUclips, I never heard of him before. Fascinating man and very very clever. He was right, England will never recover back to the glory days on a great industry as it’s backbone, that’s all sadly gone now.
I suspect Fred’s last wife was a gold digger and wanted the limelight with him and funds, so sad.
The world needs more Fred Dibnah !
RIP my brudda fred he was the realest to ever do it
Fred was a different breed a real tough hard working man Top bloke RIP Fred
A true character from a bygone era , loved the colourful way Fred discribed things and his work and passion for steam engines . He probably up their now chatting away with Brunnel . RiP Fred Dibnar .
RIP Fred Dibnah. He will always be remembered as a great man
I don’t get it. Why? He worked on chimneys and destroyed chimneys. Am I missing something here? Did he cure polio in between chimney sweeping?
Just the greatest human being ever,I had my photograph,taken with me when he downed ,Kent mill chimney,chadderton ,oldham,a,true genious, andj a real character,this world could do with more likje him, god bless
Fred was a bloody great bloke.💓
He’s a great character who was self taught,educating us all about his passion and enthusiasm for steam and traction engines who’s presenting skills made the layman understand and make equally as enthusiastic.On top of this his steeple jacking career adds more interest for people who again are drawn into Fred’s world....Sadly like those days,Fred has gone(RIP),but his memory and passion is captured for us all to listen and watch his life,presentations,witty stories and educating steam traction stories and these days gone by and all preserved on film. Where he lived and possessions,some now gone,should have been preserved by Bolton for the world. Thanks Fred for you life along with best wishes to all his family and many many friends the world over. We miss you! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👍🏴😉