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50ft was the basic chimney when they were first built. The chimney Fred is laddering in this video is ruffly 190ft. There were chimneys that were taller.
NO NO NO....lol Great Reaction but.... He said the OLD Chimneys were ONLY 50 or 60 Feet and you were, rightly, amazed. THIS was TWO HUNDRED FEET and at the end, you saw how high and that was neatly 70 yards,my friend. NOW he has to create the structure and platform,in the wind, in THIN AIR, with no safety equipment, and at times he DANGLES n the air between planks of wood. YOU MUST SEE THIS in Part 3,my friend.
He says the early ones from the 1820s are 50 to 60 ft tall. He later mentions that the later ones such as this are about 60ft in circumference. Not many about any more.
I met Fred, later on his life and can honestly say you will not find a more down to earth character. I met him at a steam fair as he was a superb engineer of the old school and rebuilt a steam traction engine. he liked his beer and cigarettes and would always chat to anybody. His breed is now long in the past and when he died, some years ago, his funeral was attended by thousands, who lined the route. sadly missed.
Really was a nice bloke, so many would head over to Bolton to buy him a pint, never heard a bad word. His steam engine skills were amazing, his family were great. My dad took me to see him when I was young, he really was a foot out of the old industrial world and a foot in the new world. Still a legend, its great to see the youngsters still admire what he got up to, even when this chimney was a baby one 😛
@@battonfive I got to see him once at a steam rally, so many people wanted to speak to him, I didn't get chance. A real Gentleman, very modest and highly skilled in his work. Never used a safety harness, all his climbs were freehand. Sadly you won't see the likes of him again. Very few steeplejacks left, and fewer chimneys - Fred knocked most of them down. Some brick by brick from the top as there was no space to drop one by knocking the bricks out at ground level. Sadly missed.
I used to live in Sheffield, but everybody knew of Fred Dibnah, he was an absolute legend so skilled and knowledgeable about not only his work as a steeplejack but a man of the world in typical architecture and it's origins, not to mention his steam engines. I used to watch his episodes on the BBC whenever he was on, not only repairing chimneys he had his own special method of bringing them down by fire at the base. He literally was 1 in a million, so sadly missed.
@@foxstrangler I met him at a pub in Lancashire where his steam traction engine was parked outside. He reckoned he could have a few pints and not worry about been stopped by the police, because there was no law against been drunk driving a traction engine as it wasn't a 'motor vehicle'. Not sure if he was right but he was a good laugh and a genuine bloke.
Here in the UK Fred Dibnah was a legend!! That was not 50 to 60ft, but somewhere close to 200ft!! Fearless Fred!! Rest In Peace you absolute Legend!! Mine is strong with one sugar.
Glad to see you are watching part 2. Fred was a true Northerner and a freakin' legend. Those factory chimneys were typically 200+ feet tall and part of the steam power plants of cotton mills in the North of the UK. There is a video of him laddering one that was over 300 feet - just google "chimney overhang at 50+"
I’m sorry to be pedantic but I think you mean the North of England, the North of the UK is Northern Scotland also known as the Highlands and not really renowned for mass industrialisation. (Sorry for being a d!ck)
The one with the overhang was India Mill in Darwen, and is 303 feet high. I did some temping at one of the companies at its base. It is a grade 2 listed and belonged to one of the many cotton mills we used to have.
Years ago now it seems, I had the chance to scale an old iron water tank some 140 maybe 150 foot high, off of ladders. We had an health and safety guy turn up and asked us to put on some harnesses. We diligently adorned them and then asked "now we've got them on, what do we secure them to?". He never did come back 😂
He stated in his BBC series one was 550ft, and this from his Wiki page "His next major job was for local firm Hick Hargreaves, the proceeds of which enabled him to expand his collection of ladders to 30. He was commissioned to remove the top half of a 270-foot (82 m) chimney and employed an assistant, Percy Porter. The top of the chimney contained a length of railway line, which had been used for lifting materials during construction. Dibnah hacksawed the line into pieces, letting each piece fall to the ground, while his assistant below kept the area clear. He then spent the next six months removing each brick by hand while the chimney was still in use, as the factory could not afford to halt production.["
Fred was an absolute legend... The Highest chimney he worked on was 330ft (without any safety equipment)... There had been many Englishmen just like him working in all of North of Englands industry.. Fred was one of the last; and truly fearless.
I have watched this video dozens of times, and I always get sweaty hands and so anxious when watching it. He was a brave man for sure, and an absolute legend.
Any viewers of pts 1&2 that are freakedout by what the amazing Fred Dibnah is doing thus far are warned NOT to watch when he gets to the top and watch him navigate the platform that he needs to build. The man was a legend in his lifetime here in the UK, one of the breed of brilliant Brits that are sadly no more, sadly [I'm a 71 yo Londoner who gets freaked out climbing 5 feet].
As a Brit born in 1942 I grew up in a Lancashire mill town. There was a cotton mill st the bottom of the street where I lived with a 200 ft chimney. Preston had 11:35 around 18 cotton mills all with tall chimneys. Guys like Fred were common place but Fred was King. I am proud of my heritage of people like Fred. By the way Fred had a degree in Fine Art, his knowledge of building construction going back to Roman times. He could explain the why the buildings of yesteryear were built in such a way that we all could understand. Fred was a one off. Nobody could surpass him, a real legend. 17:07
The cotton mills were powered by steam. Burning coal from local Pits. Each mill having its own chimney. There were about 163 chimneys in Bolton alone (where Fred was from), each kicking out black smoke 24 hrs a day. As someone has already said, this one is the 193ft. The tallest chimney in Lancashire was around 303ft tall. Fred was, and always will be a legend. He even has a statue. Thanks for reacting to these videos. Xx
I was lucky enough to have a few beers with Fred in Lees, Oldham when he worked on the Owl mill chimney and again when he sadly had to demolish it. He never had to pay a pint as everyone wanted to buy one for him. Total legend.
He's the sort of man that the Victorians had in the thousands - it explains a lot about the progress made in the UK. You also should see his steam engines!
This is BBC documentary from the 70s or maybe 80s, steeplejacks are mainly destroying chimneys leftover from the industrial revolution. They made SO MUCH money, there were hardly any of them left and especially in the north of England there would be thousands of chimneys that need taking down. In other videos he destroys them, either brick by brick from the top, or he topples them by burning out the base. Very impressive. Hes a celebrity by them and thousands of people came to see him destroy a chimney.
He'd take the lining out (if one attached) stack wood under the bottom half of the chimney and set light to the wooden beams.. then go to the local pub for a few.. as he got back the wood had burnt down and slowly the chimney would start to fall.. No H&S back then.. 🤷🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️
"how do you get up to there?" ... ... don't ask, you'll see that in the next video when he puts up his "scaffolding" (and it is not like the metal scaffolding you will see today) - What are the Chimneys for? Old Mills were powered by Steam in the Victorian era, the smoke and steam had to be released high so as not to suffocate the workers in the Mills - around 250 to 300 feet high. Like he said, when they built them they didn't think about how people would get back up them to maintain them and stop them falling down. Which is what Fred (and other Steeplejacks did)
It wasn't just air quality which wasn't really a concern of the Victorian business man the main reason for a tall chimney was for air pressure differences to get a hotter fire in the boiler and thus a more powerful boiler.
Correct, it's to form "draft". Any lower and the warm air would back draft into the fire suffocating it and thus never reach optimal operating temperatures. So if the stack has to be over 300ft high then the fire in the furnace below must have been huge.
I remember watching him on TV years ago and he became a legend and a mine of information on the industrial revolution , when he scaffolds that chimney its fantastic skill , in the TV series he take one down , and blows one up , fixes church spires all sorts of things , he became a house hold name everyone watched his program each week when i was at school , but you have to remember that's how it was done , like the the guys that built the tall building in the USA walking and having a break high up on the steel frames
I bumped into Fred at a Bolton Scrapyard but didn;t realise it was him as I admired the sheet of copper on the scales, so all I got to say to him was "Nice bit of copper" and an "Aye!" back from him, then I was too awestruck to say anything else. I wrote a nice song about him years later but I need to re-record it as the teenage girl I paid to record it was more interested in her argument with her BF than learning the song. Like most Boltoners I admire him very much.
The industrial world was very different before the health and safety legislation got serious! 40 years ago I worked in a factory which manufactured industrial & agricultural machines and I handled a lot of large sheet metal, punching, folding, shaping it. The safety mechanisms on the machines? All switched off so we could work quicker. Sometimes the owner got a heads up that the factory inspectors would visit and we'd re-enable all the safety mechanisms (mostly optical/light activated or simple physical guards) and work slowly for that day. Yes, people got hurt. Badly hurt, as in never work again hurt. It was fast and we earned a lot of money but it was shit. Fred Dibnah is amazing. Look at him going hundreds of feet up with no harness. He had the skills to do that. Few do. But be grateful that these days employees have some better protection.
I have seen this before so I obviously knew what to expect. This time I really appreciated your reaction, and the nervous chuckle which made me smile, Fred was a fearless steeplejack and a great character. Thanks for showing it again. Sheffield South Yorkshire.
Fred Dibnah, a man of many talents steeplejack being just one them, loved it when he climbed down to go to the pub for his lunch and a few pints before climbing back up again while puffing away on his cigarette. True genuine legend.
Fred has passed now but he was a steeple jack who was very daring , also a very clever man who rebuilt steam engines and all sorts of other engineering things , they don’t make em like Fred anymore R.I.P Fred
Fred Dibnah was a steeplejack. He repaired or demolished high buildings & chimneys & preferred to do it without explosives. He ws also a steam enthusiast. He became a celebrity on TV but sadly died when he was only 66.
They had a lot of difficulty filming this, Fred's balls were so massive it wasn't easy to film round them. There's quite a lot of Dibnah on youtube + he did a really excellent tv-series about the industrial revolution + there's a documentary about him too after he died - his funeral's quite the event and worth seeing. Would have loved to have had a pint with him and listened to his stories.
Oh you have got to watch Fred do the scaffold at the top of the chimney.. we used to rush home from work to watch Fred in this TV series.. No need for gym membership or vertical rock walls for Fred... and just wait till you see how he demolishes chimneys too..
The fitness involved in this is scary. Just climbing a sheer vertical ladder a short distance is hard, never mind hauling things around. He may look like an out of condition old man, but Fred was seriously fit and capable for his job. A legend.
Brilliant videos. Fred was from Bolton in Lancashire, i met him a couple of times, a great down to Earth bloke who liked a pint and loved steam engines, most chimneys in Lancashire were well over 180 feet, i worked at a textile mill after leaving school in 1974. The chimneys were so high to disperse the smoke and gases burnt below. One of them in Darwen near Blackburn was well over 300 feet high.
The chimneys where for the old cotton mills, the cotton was transported from the southern states (US) and spun into thread, something to do with the damp atmosphere
Fred was a legend over here, sadly died in 2004 aged 66, he had a tumor in his Kidney. Remember he did all that without a harness, without safety ropes. Proper old school gent
@@dandy193 he did his work in a very wet and cold climate in Bolton. He must have gone through some bitter days on top of those chimney stacks. Nevermind the height, the damn weather he faced up there impresses me. The vikings have nothing on that Anglo Saxon for stones.
There is a third part to this video where it shows him putting the ladders up the the very top of the chimney. Also this chimney is not 50 feet, most mill chimneys were between 150 t0 300 feet tall with the tallest comming home at just over 1,000 feet. Fred was a very extraordinary man of a generation that will not be seen again.
The crazy thing is he survived climbing all those chimneys but pidgeon shit nearly killed him ,he put his cap down and a pidgeon crapped in it Fred had a slight cut on his head so when he put his cap back on the poo got in the cut and made him severely ill .
Fred also knew a huge amount about Medieval architecture and made documentaries about castles, how they were built ect. His depth of knowledge on many such subjects was amazing.
Don’t forget the guys who built the chimney. Then the guys who dug up the coal. What about those guys that picked the cotton that was the raw material for the mill !
Did you know that Fred Dibnah was also a very keen steam enthusiast? Used to go on holiday with a steam tractor, that he had rebuilt himself, towing an original caravan with the family. There are videos of that as well. He was certainly an exceptional character.
It's not just the lack of 'fear' in doing this, but physically how just does his legs cope with standing on each rung for such a time, especially when he sometimes uses both hands - holding apparently with just his feat/legs!!
Fred was from Bolton in Lancashire in the north west of England. I'm from Preston, which is not far away from Bolton, and a similar kind of town that blossomed during the Industrial Revolution. All the lines about "dark, satanic mills" were pretty descriptive of the county at one point. When I was young these types of chimneys were very common, though most of them disappeared with the cotton mills that, for many decades, supplied the world with cheap textiles. Most have long disappeared as countries in the Far East were able to produce textiles much cheaper. There are a few still around, though probably not too many Fred Dibnahs to look after them. The Health and Safety people wouldn't put up with it these days and that's probably a good thing. One of them you can see in the Wallis and Gromit movie, A Close Shave. Pretty sure that the dog food factory is modeled on Tulketh Mill in Preston, which is where Nick Parks, the animator, grew up.
Fred Dibnah was a well-known legendary steeplejack here in the UK......if you want to see something even scarier then look no further than a well-known and loved children's programme called BLUE PETER from the 1970s where the much loved John Noakes climbs Nelson column......I'll say no more, you just have to watch it 👍😁👍
often overlooked spare a thought for the camera man and sound guy who also had to scale the heights They actually had to do it twice because the sound recordist , failed to record the sound .
Steeplejacks like Fred back then had to have no fear of any height - or else they'd never go up one again - usual chimney (stacks) made for Mills, or other businesses could range from anywhere up to 300 feet plus (100 metres or so) . . . And these ones were tiny in comparison width-wise compared to the ones built for coal-fired power stations . . . The next video for you to watch with Fred - is his - How he puts his main scaffolding (scaff-fill-ding) up around the top of the chimney . . . Only If your BP and heart can stand it, that is???? (chuckle!)
I've seen videos of your guys climbing those rediculous Communication masts to put a light on top up around 1700ft, all harnessed up ect, Fred would climb one of those without any safety equipment 🤣🤣. Great reaction. As already said watch him climb up and over a overhang and put up scaffolding. Even better 👍
Just wait till you see the one where there is an overhang at the top and the ladder is actually tipped backwards over nothing but air - and he still climbs it. Terrifying.
In those days, the only thing that wore a Harness was a Horse...Cap,Jacket, Baggy Pants and Hob Nail Boots...ciggy...you either envisage Fred Dibnah...or Andy Capp..🤔😉👍
NO NO NO....lol Great Reaction but.... He said the OLD Chimneys were ONLY 50 or 60 Feet and you were, rightly, amazed. THIS was TWO HUNDRED FEET and at the end, you saw how high and that was neatly 70 yards,my friend. NOW he has to create the structure and platform,in the wind, in THIN AIR, with no safety equipment, and at times he DANGLES n the air between planks of wood. YOU MUST SEE THIS in Part 3,my friend.
Fred is a genuine salt of the earth gentleman. They don't make them like this any more. When he finished the task, he climbed back down, walked home & sat with his good wife for a cuppa tea ❤❤❤
It wouldn't have been a cuppa tea, it would have been a brew. Or a proper pint. I went to "An evening with Fred", a theatre show where he told us all the events he had which the TV people wouldn't show. He was throwing bricks down from the top once, the chimney top was in cloud. He misjudged where the car park below was, chucked a brick down which was later found on the floor of an office, having gone through the roof, through a typewriter and through the desk of the typist.
You see how much work was involved putting that ladder up? Well he would then go on to put another on the other side! He needed two so he could build wooden scaffolding around the top. You think laddering looks scary, go and watch him scaffolding. And yet he died in his bed. It looks scary but he knew what he was doing. Don't forget the men who built New York's skyscrapers had a death rate of 2 out of every 5. Young men taking risks for big bucks!
No safety wasn't known in those days . The chimney is 4 timesthe height that is shown. He neth comes down n light s dyna. Ite under the chimney n blows it up. He is so accurate the chy. Ney fas e, xacy where he Wa ts
he bring chimneys down the old fashioned way props and fire also from the top down by hand chisel and hammer no explosives ... u keep watching is stuff he built a workshop with Victorian machinery also had steam traction engines he is a hero of the north west of England from Bolton if i remember correctly
Fred was a Legend,in later years he became a TV expert on the Industrial Revolution, he had steam engines, a sunk a coal mine in his back garden. He sadly died of cancer at the age of 66. The country was in mourning when he died.
The average height of a two-story house can be estimated around 4.7 to 5.8 meters, which is 15.5 to 19 feet, but it can vary significantly based on specific designs and local standards.
"How to Erect a Chimney Scaffold at 200ft" is a different chimney but shows the next stage of the process to build the platform at the top on which he works. There's also a video of a job he took on to take down a similar sized chimney by hand...
It’s to demolish the chimney, you must first take the crown at the top off brick by brick, then cut a big scarf out of the bottom ,support the scarf hole with wood props, make the scarf very big ,place fire wood around the bace of the chimney and light the fire, the fire will burn the props and the chimney will fall down.
Any others on here can feel their loins gurding watching this? How many others are wincing at the fact it's off of wooden ladders and not aluminium, thus not knowing which rung is rotten, got woodworm or has shrunk? Dibnah, the last of the British mad lads, and that's a salute to you sir.
To give you an idea how tall this one is. Imagine an 18 story high block of flats. That's close maybe a few feet short. Fred had 30 ladders for the jobs he did. He once took a chimney down brick by brick and charged £7000 which was good money back then for 5 months work. These chimneys were used for the cotton mills. And they used steam power..well we all know steam is not powered by Joe Biden's mouth lol. But by fire. So used in those days to keep smoke high and away from the people in the ground.
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That is a two hundred feet chimney stack, brother.
50ft was the basic chimney when they were first built. The chimney Fred is laddering in this video is ruffly 190ft. There were chimneys that were taller.
NO NO NO....lol Great Reaction but....
He said the OLD Chimneys were ONLY 50 or 60 Feet and you were, rightly, amazed. THIS was TWO HUNDRED FEET and at the end, you saw how high and that was neatly 70 yards,my friend. NOW he has to create the structure and platform,in the wind, in THIN AIR, with no safety equipment, and at times he DANGLES n the air between planks of wood.
YOU MUST SEE THIS in Part 3,my friend.
I do hope you appreciate it's all Done with No safety Ropes , Nets or Any Safety Equipment of Any kind .. Old School Steeple Jacking.
prob wont do your form; but check out him putting the scaffoling up around the top! that bit is terrifying.
This was back when men were men and health and safety were just words in a dictionary. Fred was such a legend. 🇬🇧💪🏻💪🏻
50 - 60ft was the number given for the early chimneys, this one is a later build. It's known as Ena Mill and is around 190ft tall.
Are u a fellow Englishman ? 🇬🇧👍
550ft is the taller ones he did.
he said 60ft was the approx circumference didnt he? and that looks about right to me
He says the early ones from the 1820s are 50 to 60 ft tall. He later mentions that the later ones such as this are about 60ft in circumference.
Not many about any more.
Fred had balls of steel I get a nose bleed with two pairs of socks on
Fred Dibnah did alot of stuff for British TV.
I would highly recommend all of it to anyone.
It's good that you appreciate this man Dibnah we loved him as kids😊
Fred was just an old-fashioned guy, doing his job, same as all of his generation. They just got on with it, no fuss, but lots of professionalism.
This is how the modern western world was built bro - by British dudes who just got stuff done - no messing around. Proper job.
We need more women steeplejacks. You know, for diversity and such 😅
It's unsurprising that the men from this land went on to conquer half the planet.
I met Fred, later on his life and can honestly say you will not find a more down to earth character. I met him at a steam fair as he was a superb engineer of the old school and rebuilt a steam traction engine. he liked his beer and cigarettes and would always chat to anybody. His breed is now long in the past and when he died, some years ago, his funeral was attended by thousands, who lined the route. sadly missed.
Really was a nice bloke, so many would head over to Bolton to buy him a pint, never heard a bad word. His steam engine skills were amazing, his family were great. My dad took me to see him when I was young, he really was a foot out of the old industrial world and a foot in the new world. Still a legend, its great to see the youngsters still admire what he got up to, even when this chimney was a baby one 😛
@@battonfive I got to see him once at a steam rally, so many people wanted to speak to him, I didn't get chance.
A real Gentleman, very modest and highly skilled in his work. Never used a safety harness, all his climbs were freehand.
Sadly you won't see the likes of him again. Very few steeplejacks left, and fewer chimneys - Fred knocked most of them down. Some brick by brick from the top as there was no space to drop one by knocking the bricks out at ground level. Sadly missed.
I used to live in Sheffield, but everybody knew of Fred Dibnah, he was an absolute legend so skilled and knowledgeable about not only his work as a steeplejack but a man of the world in typical architecture and it's origins, not to mention his steam engines. I used to watch his episodes on the BBC whenever he was on, not only repairing chimneys he had his own special method of bringing them down by fire at the base. He literally was 1 in a million, so sadly missed.
@@foxstrangler I met him at a pub in Lancashire where his steam traction engine was parked outside. He reckoned he could have a few pints and not worry about been stopped by the police, because there was no law against been drunk driving a traction engine as it wasn't a 'motor vehicle'. Not sure if he was right but he was a good laugh and a genuine bloke.
Here in the UK Fred Dibnah was a legend!! That was not 50 to 60ft, but somewhere close to 200ft!! Fearless Fred!! Rest In Peace you absolute Legend!! Mine is strong with one sugar.
Americans can´t understand proper English lanky accent . Dawson steepeljack´s are legend also . Wey aey man . Greetings from Finland . 🧱⚒
Glad to see you are watching part 2. Fred was a true Northerner and a freakin' legend. Those factory chimneys were typically 200+ feet tall and part of the steam power plants of cotton mills in the North of the UK. There is a video of him laddering one that was over 300 feet - just google "chimney overhang at 50+"
I’m sorry to be pedantic but I think you mean the North of England, the North of the UK is Northern Scotland also known as the Highlands and not really renowned for mass industrialisation. (Sorry for being a d!ck)
The one with the overhang was India Mill in Darwen, and is 303 feet high. I did some temping at one of the companies at its base. It is a grade 2 listed and belonged to one of the many cotton mills we used to have.
Years ago now it seems, I had the chance to scale an old iron water tank some 140 maybe 150 foot high, off of ladders. We had an health and safety guy turn up and asked us to put on some harnesses. We diligently adorned them and then asked "now we've got them on, what do we secure them to?". He never did come back 😂
He stated in his BBC series one was 550ft, and this from his Wiki page "His next major job was for local firm Hick Hargreaves, the proceeds of which enabled him to expand his collection of ladders to 30. He was commissioned to remove the top half of a 270-foot (82 m) chimney and employed an assistant, Percy Porter. The top of the chimney contained a length of railway line, which had been used for lifting materials during construction. Dibnah hacksawed the line into pieces, letting each piece fall to the ground, while his assistant below kept the area clear. He then spent the next six months removing each brick by hand while the chimney was still in use, as the factory could not afford to halt production.["
Fred was an absolute legend... The Highest chimney he worked on was 330ft (without any safety equipment)... There had been many Englishmen just like him working in all of North of Englands industry.. Fred was one of the last; and truly fearless.
I have watched this video dozens of times, and I always get sweaty hands and so anxious when watching it. He was a brave man for sure, and an absolute legend.
He truly was a man amongst men. R.I.P Fred x
Any viewers of pts 1&2 that are freakedout by what the amazing Fred Dibnah is doing thus far are warned NOT to watch when he gets to the top and watch him navigate the platform that he needs to build. The man was a legend in his lifetime here in the UK, one of the breed of brilliant Brits that are sadly no more, sadly [I'm a 71 yo Londoner who gets freaked out climbing 5 feet].
I'm also a Brit of similar vintage and totally agree.
As a Brit born in 1942 I grew up in a Lancashire mill town. There was a cotton mill st the bottom of the street where I lived with a 200 ft chimney. Preston had 11:35 around 18 cotton mills all with tall chimneys. Guys like Fred were common place but Fred was King. I am proud of my heritage of people like Fred. By the way Fred had a degree in Fine Art, his knowledge of building construction going back to Roman times. He could explain the why the buildings of yesteryear were built in such a way that we all could understand. Fred was a one off. Nobody could surpass him, a real legend. 17:07
A proper man and such an expert in his field. I remember being so impressed with him when I watched this all those years ago.
The cotton mills were powered by steam. Burning coal from local Pits. Each mill having its own chimney. There were about 163 chimneys in Bolton alone (where Fred was from), each kicking out black smoke 24 hrs a day.
As someone has already said, this one is the 193ft. The tallest chimney in Lancashire was around 303ft tall.
Fred was, and always will be a legend. He even has a statue.
Thanks for reacting to these videos. Xx
Many people like me have watched this video over and over again. Always to watch fred being the legend that he is. Never gets old
I was lucky enough to have a few beers with Fred in Lees, Oldham when he worked on the Owl mill chimney and again when he sadly had to demolish it. He never had to pay a pint as everyone wanted to buy one for him. Total legend.
He's the sort of man that the Victorians had in the thousands - it explains a lot about the progress made in the UK. You also should see his steam engines!
Don't forget his own coal mine under his house.
This is BBC documentary from the 70s or maybe 80s, steeplejacks are mainly destroying chimneys leftover from the industrial revolution. They made SO MUCH money, there were hardly any of them left and especially in the north of England there would be thousands of chimneys that need taking down. In other videos he destroys them, either brick by brick from the top, or he topples them by burning out the base. Very impressive. Hes a celebrity by them and thousands of people came to see him destroy a chimney.
He'd take the lining out (if one attached) stack wood under the bottom half of the chimney and set light to the wooden beams.. then go to the local pub for a few.. as he got back the wood had burnt down and slowly the chimney would start to fall..
No H&S back then.. 🤷🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️
"how do you get up to there?" ... ... don't ask, you'll see that in the next video when he puts up his "scaffolding" (and it is not like the metal scaffolding you will see today) - What are the Chimneys for? Old Mills were powered by Steam in the Victorian era, the smoke and steam had to be released high so as not to suffocate the workers in the Mills - around 250 to 300 feet high. Like he said, when they built them they didn't think about how people would get back up them to maintain them and stop them falling down. Which is what Fred (and other Steeplejacks did)
It wasn't just air quality which wasn't really a concern of the Victorian business man the main reason for a tall chimney was for air pressure differences to get a hotter fire in the boiler and thus a more powerful boiler.
Correct, it's to form "draft". Any lower and the warm air would back draft into the fire suffocating it and thus never reach optimal operating temperatures. So if the stack has to be over 300ft high then the fire in the furnace below must have been huge.
Reputedly birds in Pontefract flew backwards to keep t'soot out of their eyes.
I remember watching him on TV years ago and he became a legend and a mine of information on the industrial revolution , when he scaffolds that chimney its fantastic skill , in the TV series he take one down , and blows one up , fixes church spires all sorts of things , he became a house hold name everyone watched his program each week when i was at school , but you have to remember that's how it was done , like the the guys that built the tall building in the USA walking and having a break high up on the steel frames
Dude there's another vid where he's actually putting up the scaffolding on the chimney top and its WILD!
I bumped into Fred at a Bolton Scrapyard but didn;t realise it was him as I admired the sheet of copper on the scales, so all I got to say to him was "Nice bit of copper" and an "Aye!" back from him, then I was too awestruck to say anything else. I wrote a nice song about him years later but I need to re-record it as the teenage girl I paid to record it was more interested in her argument with her BF than learning the song. Like most Boltoners I admire him very much.
Welcome to the magical world of Fred
The industrial world was very different before the health and safety legislation got serious! 40 years ago I worked in a factory which manufactured industrial & agricultural machines and I handled a lot of large sheet metal, punching, folding, shaping it. The safety mechanisms on the machines? All switched off so we could work quicker. Sometimes the owner got a heads up that the factory inspectors would visit and we'd re-enable all the safety mechanisms (mostly optical/light activated or simple physical guards) and work slowly for that day. Yes, people got hurt. Badly hurt, as in never work again hurt. It was fast and we earned a lot of money but it was shit. Fred Dibnah is amazing. Look at him going hundreds of feet up with no harness. He had the skills to do that. Few do. But be grateful that these days employees have some better protection.
I have seen this before so I obviously knew what to expect. This time I really appreciated your reaction, and the nervous chuckle which made me smile, Fred was a fearless steeplejack and a great character. Thanks for showing it again. Sheffield South Yorkshire.
Fred Dibnah is a Legend in the UK. When you hear that phrase “Old School” Fred is the epitome of that saying.
Fred was and always will be a legend!
Fred Dibnah, a man of many talents steeplejack being just one them, loved it when he climbed down to go to the pub for his lunch and a few pints before climbing back up again while puffing away on his cigarette. True genuine legend.
Fred has passed now but he was a steeple jack who was very daring , also a very clever man who rebuilt steam engines and all sorts of other engineering things , they don’t make em like Fred anymore R.I.P Fred
Fred Dibnah was a steeplejack. He repaired or demolished high buildings & chimneys & preferred to do it without explosives. He ws also a steam enthusiast. He became a celebrity on TV but sadly died when he was only 66.
I remember watching him on tv when i was a kid and how the hell he got to 66 i'll never know haha
Yeah and I seen him going up after a couple of pints and smoking as well he was definitely something else was Fred...
Once Fred was introduced to people. People couldn't get enough of him. Legend and National treasure. Next part.
Thanks to RUclips, Fred lives on and his skills will leave new generations across the world speechless.
They had a lot of difficulty filming this, Fred's balls were so massive it wasn't easy to film round them.
There's quite a lot of Dibnah on youtube + he did a really excellent tv-series about the industrial revolution + there's a documentary about him too after he died - his funeral's quite the event and worth seeing. Would have loved to have had a pint with him and listened to his stories.
I still can't believe Fred died in bed (too soon) surrounded by his family, a national treasure and some.
You have to watch Fred taking down a chimney!
That's really something!
I like the one where he digs a mine shaft in his back garden by himself.
Keep going. This continues to off the nut scale.!!!!😂😂😂😂😂🇬🇧🏴🇬🇧✌️👍😁😁
Fred Dibnah = Balls of steel
To be honest i think he had balls made of brackets because it was only his balls holding him on that ladder lol
Oh you have got to watch Fred do the scaffold at the top of the chimney.. we used to rush home from work to watch Fred in this TV series.. No need for gym membership or vertical rock walls for Fred... and just wait till you see how he demolishes chimneys too..
ruclips.net/video/w3ma9iYx4rg/видео.htmlsi=rZ3nx4n0n_z7SvyX
The fitness involved in this is scary.
Just climbing a sheer vertical ladder a short distance is hard, never mind hauling things around.
He may look like an out of condition old man, but Fred was seriously fit and capable for his job.
A legend.
Fred Dibnah had many talents. He was very artistic and could produce the most beautiful drawings.
Fred dibnah what a hero
Brilliant videos. Fred was from Bolton in Lancashire, i met him a couple of times, a great down to Earth bloke who liked a pint and loved steam engines, most chimneys in Lancashire were well over 180 feet, i worked at a textile mill after leaving school in 1974. The chimneys were so high to disperse the smoke and gases burnt below. One of them in Darwen near Blackburn was well over 300 feet high.
The chimneys where for the old cotton mills, the cotton was transported from the southern states (US) and spun into thread, something to do with the damp atmosphere
Fred was a legend over here, sadly died in 2004 aged 66, he had a tumor in his Kidney. Remember he did all that without a harness, without safety ropes. Proper old school gent
and many times with a load of beer on board
@@regorRegor Yeah he wasn't shy about sinking a few in the afternoon for sure. He was the sort of man I could listen to all day long
@@dandy193 he did his work in a very wet and cold climate in Bolton. He must have gone through some bitter days on top of those chimney stacks. Nevermind the height, the damn weather he faced up there impresses me. The vikings have nothing on that Anglo Saxon for stones.
He had a wonderful way about him with his accent.
There is a third part to this video where it shows him putting the ladders up the the very top of the chimney. Also this chimney is not 50 feet, most mill chimneys were between 150 t0 300 feet tall with the tallest comming home at just over 1,000 feet. Fred was a very extraordinary man of a generation that will not be seen again.
And no safety harness in sight. No idea how he was ever able to climb with stainless steel balls like his. We will never see the likes of Fred again.
The crazy thing is he survived climbing all those chimneys but pidgeon shit nearly killed him ,he put his cap down and a pidgeon crapped in it Fred had a slight cut on his head so when he put his cap back on the poo got in the cut and made him severely ill .
His hat fell in a puddle of water with pigeon crapin it.
in the 1960s and 50s this is what we grew up with, and this is what you have lost.
Notice how Fred's mallet isn't tied to anything, his mate at the bottom is a trusting soul.
Fred also knew a huge amount about Medieval architecture and made documentaries about castles, how they were built ect. His depth of knowledge on many such subjects was amazing.
He was a natural born engineer.
Don’t forget the guys who built the chimney. Then the guys who dug up the coal.
What about those guys that picked the cotton that was the raw material for the mill !
Did you know that Fred Dibnah was also a very keen steam enthusiast? Used to go on holiday with a steam tractor, that he had rebuilt himself, towing an original caravan with the family. There are videos of that as well. He was certainly an exceptional character.
I have watched fred many many times over the years and my hoop grips the sofa everytime
@@jackmason4374 killer funny. I will remember that line.
It's not just the lack of 'fear' in doing this, but physically how just does his legs cope with standing on each rung for such a time, especially when he sometimes uses both hands - holding apparently with just his feat/legs!!
God knows how strong he was
@@Ashleigh50 He has a family to feed.
Fred forever...!
Fred was from Bolton in Lancashire in the north west of England. I'm from Preston, which is not far away from Bolton, and a similar kind of town that blossomed during the Industrial Revolution. All the lines about "dark, satanic mills" were pretty descriptive of the county at one point. When I was young these types of chimneys were very common, though most of them disappeared with the cotton mills that, for many decades, supplied the world with cheap textiles. Most have long disappeared as countries in the Far East were able to produce textiles much cheaper. There are a few still around, though probably not too many Fred Dibnahs to look after them. The Health and Safety people wouldn't put up with it these days and that's probably a good thing. One of them you can see in the Wallis and Gromit movie, A Close Shave. Pretty sure that the dog food factory is modeled on Tulketh Mill in Preston, which is where Nick Parks, the animator, grew up.
I lived in the next town to Fred and was lucky to meet him. He was such a decent man, one of a kind.
He use to have 3 pints Inbetween work for lunch as well and then climb back back up.
Fred Dibnah was a well-known legendary steeplejack here in the UK......if you want to see something even scarier then look no further than a well-known and loved children's programme called BLUE PETER from the 1970s where the much loved John Noakes climbs Nelson column......I'll say no more, you just have to watch it 👍😁👍
1977 John Noakes scaling Nelson's Column: ruclips.net/video/tMrB_3wq2ak/видео.html
often overlooked spare a thought for the camera man and sound guy who also had to scale the heights
They actually had to do it twice because the sound recordist , failed to record the sound .
Fred Dibnah - Balls. Of. Steel.
Steeplejacks like Fred back then had to have no fear of any height - or else they'd never go up one again - usual chimney (stacks) made for Mills, or other businesses could range from anywhere up to 300 feet plus (100 metres or so) . . . And these ones were tiny in comparison width-wise compared to the ones built for coal-fired power stations . . . The next video for you to watch with Fred - is his - How he puts his main scaffolding (scaff-fill-ding) up around the top of the chimney . . . Only If your BP and heart can stand it, that is???? (chuckle!)
I've seen videos of your guys climbing those rediculous Communication masts to put a light on top up around 1700ft, all harnessed up ect, Fred would climb one of those without any safety equipment 🤣🤣. Great reaction. As already said watch him climb up and over a overhang and put up scaffolding. Even better 👍
Just wait till you see the one where there is an overhang at the top and the ladder is actually tipped backwards over nothing but air - and he still climbs it. Terrifying.
In those days, the only thing that wore a Harness was a Horse...Cap,Jacket, Baggy Pants and Hob Nail Boots...ciggy...you either envisage Fred Dibnah...or Andy Capp..🤔😉👍
The only negative thing about Fred was he didn’t get the pigs ears(beers)in!RIP sir Fred🙏🏻
Gets me he's hanging on with one leg no safety harness !
And he never fell. Died in his bed, legend.
That's one big chimney.😮
You need to watch him putting up a scaffolding its edge of the seat stuff 😮😅👍🏻
NO NO NO....lol Great Reaction but....
He said the OLD Chimneys were ONLY 50 or 60 Feet and you were, rightly, amazed. THIS was TWO HUNDRED FEET and at the end, you saw how high and that was neatly 70 yards,my friend. NOW he has to create the structure and platform,in the wind, in THIN AIR, with no safety equipment, and at times he DANGLES n the air between planks of wood.
YOU MUST SEE THIS in Part 3,my friend.
India Mill, in Darwen which is grade 2 listed and is the one in the video when he shows passing an overhang is 303 feet high.
@@JM-dm3qk Thanks,My Friend.
Old guys check the ladies too😂😂
Fred is a genuine salt of the earth gentleman. They don't make them like this any more. When he finished the task, he climbed back down, walked home & sat with his good wife for a cuppa tea ❤❤❤
It wouldn't have been a cuppa tea, it would have been a brew. Or a proper pint. I went to "An evening with Fred", a theatre show where he told us all the events he had which the TV people wouldn't show. He was throwing bricks down from the top once, the chimney top was in cloud. He misjudged where the car park below was, chucked a brick down which was later found on the floor of an office, having gone through the roof, through a typewriter and through the desk of the typist.
You see how much work was involved putting that ladder up? Well he would then go on to put another on the other side! He needed two so he could build wooden scaffolding around the top. You think laddering looks scary, go and watch him scaffolding. And yet he died in his bed. It looks scary but he knew what he was doing. Don't forget the men who built New York's skyscrapers had a death rate of 2 out of every 5. Young men taking risks for big bucks!
No safety wasn't known in those days . The chimney is 4 timesthe height that is shown. He neth comes down n light s dyna. Ite under the chimney n blows it up. He is so accurate the chy. Ney fas e, xacy where he Wa ts
Iv'e seen this video several times and I still get sweaty hands.
This didn't start off as a you tube video, it was a BBC film.
he bring chimneys down the old fashioned way props and fire also from the top down by hand chisel and hammer no explosives ... u keep watching is stuff he built a workshop with Victorian machinery also had steam traction engines he is a hero of the north west of England from Bolton if i remember correctly
Fred was a Legend,in later years he became a TV expert on the Industrial Revolution, he had steam engines, a sunk a coal mine in his back garden. He sadly died of cancer at the age of 66. The country was in mourning when he died.
Now you need to watch the video where he climbs up and out round an overhang
I'd love to have seen a video of how he put/fixed the ladder around that overhang in the first place!
That is one of the scariest processes I've ever seen.
i get vertigo just watching. i'd hate to be up there
The average height of a two-story house can be estimated around 4.7 to 5.8 meters, which is 15.5 to 19 feet, but it can vary significantly based on specific designs and local standards.
I really respect very few people in any fields of endeavour. But this guy is absolutely fantastic and unique and quite remarkable.
This is my hometown, Atherton, Lancashire.
"How to Erect a Chimney Scaffold at 200ft" is a different chimney but shows the next stage of the process to build the platform at the top on which he works. There's also a video of a job he took on to take down a similar sized chimney by hand...
@@tomj819 ...by HAND!
The one consoling factor with a job like this is - if you fall, you will only ever fall once...
As Fred used to say... You only make one mistake, then it's half a day with the undertaker!
Fred was also passionate about steam traction engines and rebuilt/restored at least one or two in his lifetime.
He was so well respected , that on reporting his death , the BBC News anchor off script said " they don't make them like that anymore .....
It’s to demolish the chimney, you must first take the crown at the top off brick by brick, then cut a big scarf out of the bottom ,support the scarf hole with wood props, make the scarf very big ,place fire wood around the bace of the chimney and light the fire, the fire will burn the props and the chimney will fall down.
This is why , always respect the old timers ... Fred a ture British icon.
Thanks for sharing this .. your face a picture at times 🇬🇧
thank you for high lighting these videos as you can see this video was take many years ago
Your reaction is sooo funny. Fred Dibnah is such an eccentric Englishman. There's a who host of crazy videos about him.
Fred is a Lancashire legend from Bolton, sadly missed
The chimneys were attached to steam powered factories.
So this was the chimney for all the coal smoke.
It's the chimney of a former cotton spinning mill. The chimney is 200ft tall.
Any others on here can feel their loins gurding watching this? How many others are wincing at the fact it's off of wooden ladders and not aluminium, thus not knowing which rung is rotten, got woodworm or has shrunk?
Dibnah, the last of the British mad lads, and that's a salute to you sir.
Usually 200 -250 feet tall. It was a TV series in the 1980's. There's more on RUclips even more scary.
Been watching Fred since the late 70s,he’s a Legend and had balls of steel.From England.
Note that he has no safety harnesses and there are no health and safety rules with Fred. He just balances on the top of his ladder.
I love the dawning look of terror as you start to think "how can he get up to there"....
To give you an idea how tall this one is. Imagine an 18 story high block of flats. That's close maybe a few feet short. Fred had 30 ladders for the jobs he did. He once took a chimney down brick by brick and charged £7000 which was good money back then for 5 months work. These chimneys were used for the cotton mills. And they used steam power..well we all know steam is not powered by Joe Biden's mouth lol. But by fire. So used in those days to keep smoke high and away from the people in the ground.