Ward's Book of Days.
Pages of interesting anniversaries.
What happened on this day in history.
APRIL 29th
On this day in history in 1938, was born Fred Dibnah.
Dibnah was a joiner, a steeplejack, an engineer and eccentric, who became a national icon in the late Twentieth Century.
Dibnah
was born on 29th April 1938, at Bolton, Lancashire, the son of
Frank and Betsy Dibnah. After a brief but adequate education at a local
school, Dibnah was apprenticed to a joiner, and after serving his time, moved
to another profession, a steeplejack, a repairer and maintainer of tall
buildings. He became noted for his agility in climbing church spires and mill
chimneys, and his total lack of anxiety in the face of such apparent peril.
As
the cotton trade declined in the 1960’s and 1970’s, Bolton’s multitude
of mill chimneys became obsolete, which necessitated their demolition.
The cost of dynamiting these structures was often prohibitive, but they
could not remain standing for safety reasons. Dibnah perfected a cheap and
efficient method of felling these structures. He would make a large cavity in
the lower part of the structure, removing bricks and replacing them with
wooden props. Once the lower section of one side of the brickwork had been
replaced, the wooden props were burned and the chimney would collapse,
hopefully, in the right direction.
Dibnah
came to public notice, when the BBC televised a news item on his work in
maintaining the structure of Bolton Town Hall.
The combination of Dibnah’s nonchalant attitude to apparent danger
and his unbridled enthusiasm for his profession, delivered in an earthy Bolton
accent, endeared him to the public and convinced the BBC to commission a
documentary entitled Fred Dibnah – Steeplejack.
The programme, aired in 1979, introduced Dibnah at work, climbing church
spires and chimneys while delivering an unscripted commentary on the delights
of tall buildings and the lamentable state of affairs which necessitated the
destruction of so many of them.
This
programme was to be the first of many. A series of television programmes
appeared regularly, establishing Dibnah as a television celebrity. The early
programmes concentrated on the toppling of chimneys, which occasionally
involved Dibnah
scuttling from the collapse and personally addressing
the audience with the gleeful expression "Did yer like that?" Other
programmes dealt with his work as a steeplejack, climbing dizzy heights which
would make the average viewer quail, while casually remarking "A man who
says he feels no fear, is either a fool or a liar." Subsequent programmes
dealt with steam engines and their contribution to the Industrial Revolution.
He would say "I realise that steam engines aren't everyone's cup of tea,
but they're what made England great." In a later series, Fred
Dibnah’s Buildings of Britain, he explored British architecture, from the
perspective of the men who did the building, rather than those who ordered the
construction. He was noted to remark that ‘Anybody who destroys
anything made of stone should be prosecuted. It is not all beautiful, but it
took a man all day to make one stone.’
Dibnah received two honorary doctorates given, for what he said, was ‘back street mechanicing’. In 2004, he was awarded the MBE. Dibnah died on 6th November 2004. At his funeral, the coffin was borne by his favourite traction engine, closely followed by his steamroller. Dibnah is buried in Bolton, where he born, and lived out his life’s work. [Tonge Fold Cemetery, Cemetery Road, Bolton BL2 6AQ]
©2006 Ward’s Book of Days