Fred Dibnahs Funeral

[cojones]

Steam-powered funeral for Fred Dibnah

By Nigel Bunyan

(Filed: 17/11/2004)

Thousands of mourners lined the streets of Bolton yesterday to pay their last respects to Fred Dibnah, the straight-talking Lancastrian steeplejack whose infatuation with the age of steam made him a TV star. Dibnah, 66, died 11 days ago after a three-year battle with cancer but earlier this year had travelled to Buckingham Palace by steam tractor to collect an MBE from the Queen.

Yesterday his flat cap was placed on top of a Victorian trailer before a cavalcade of steam-powered vehicles, their whistles blowing, took him on his final outing to Bolton parish church. The steeplejack's sons, Jack and Roger, each drove an engine.

'A unique craftsman': Fred Dibnah's son drives his father's coffin, with trademark cloth cap, to the funeral

Earlier, Canon Michael Williams, a personal friend, described Dibnah as "a unique craftsman''.

David Hall, the television executive who helped to produce some of Dibnah's programmes, told the congregation: "He wasn't a posh TV presenter. He was recognised as a working man who had learned through experience."

Last summer Dibnah, a thrice-married father of five, rejected a new course of chemotherapy in favour of climbing aboard his 1912 traction engine for a tour of engineering masterpieces.

"While I'm still vertical, I am going to keep going," he had said. "I am going to really enjoy this tour.''

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Monday, 8th November 2004

Tribute to Fred Dibnah

PASSIONATE: Fred and one of his engines

FRED Dibnah was a man born out of his time. When his first wife walked out on him, she accused the eccentric, chimney-toppling steeplejack of living in the last century.

The legendary flat-capped Lancastrian, who died on Saturday aged 66, agreed with her. "Oh yes, I prefer the past to the present," he mused. "Because life today, with all its modern technology, isn't very good, is it? And the future looks even worse."

Bolton-based Fred, who demolished more than 100 chimneys and married three times, became one of Britain's best-known TV presenters over 25 years. His steam tractors, his nationwide searches for engineering masterpieces, his enthusiasm and his flat Boltonian drawl endeared him to millions of viewers.

The man who seemed to belong to a different age became a TV star after a chance interview on a local news programme. He was pictured as he perched 240ft high, repairing Bolton town hall clock.

The Bafta award-winning documentary, Fred Dibnah: Steeplejack, was the first of many programmes which made him famous. He once caused a storm of protest from viewers by his constant swearing on the box. But Fred maintained defiantly: "There's no way I can bloody well stop swearing, even when the camera is on me. I still can't believe people get upset about my language.

"After all, when you switch on TV these days everyone is jumping into bed with each other and people are using four-letter language much stronger than the stuff I ever use."

IN A HOLE: Fred in his mineshaft

Fred could still recall his excitement as a young lad when steam locomotives roared past his bedroom widow at night, the driver's face lit only by the engine's firebox.

He said that he first discovered a passion for industrial history by the old Bolton, Bury and Manchester canal.

Beside his father on bike rides along the canal, Fred was fascinated by the decaying industrial landscape. He wanted to know about the people who worked in the factories, spinning mills and workshops. But he also wanted to know about the machines they used and the engines that drove them.

"The 18th and 19th centuries were dynamic times for Great Britain," recalled Fred.

"We provided the birthplace for the industrial revolution and harnessed the true power of coal, water and steam to drive heavy machinery.

"Without this, mass production which we now take for granted would be impossible. It's an era that I only saw the end of. I wish I'd lived through more of this fascinating period of Britain's history."

THE young Dibnah began working life as a joiner, helping to make coffins. During his two years national service, he was put into Army canteens to work as a chef.

But he soon managed to wangle a job on a German farm, repairing a barn. He stayed there for the duration, and managed to be reasonably happy with a hole in the fence and a pub across the road.

Later, as one of life's great talkers, when he wasn't working at restoring church roofs or pulling down disused chimney stacks, he had enough speaking engagements to keep him in drinks and help pay the household bills.

HONOURED: Fred with his MBE

The Bolton blaster with the calloused hands demolished his last chimney in May this year in front of more than 2,000 spectators at Royton, near Oldham.

After removing part of the base, he filled the stack with telegraph poles which he then lit to cause the 175ft Park Mill chimney to collapse.

Fred, a father of five, was divorced from his first wife, Alison, after 18 years of marriage, and second wife, Susan, after 12 years. Alison had complained that he thought more about his steam engines than her and their three daughters.

His third wife, ex-showgirl Sheila Grundy, was 20 years his junior. He arrived at the wedding by steam-roller; she got him to buy a new cap.

Fred - awarded an MBE for services to heritage and broadcasting - had a couple of brushes with neighbours.

In 1997 magistrates fined him £100 with £278 costs for illegal smoke emissions from his backyard and he caused further concern when he began digging a 70ft working mineshaft in the back garden of his Grade II listed home in Radcliffe Road, Bolton.

Some residents feared the pit, complete with 30ft-high winding gear, would send house prices tumbling and could lead to subsidence, but Fred argued that the town once had dozens of working pits and that past generations should be remembered.

Although his plans for the working mine museum were thrown out by Bolton Council, Fred was undeterred and, spurred on by a petition signed by 154 householders supporting a fresh application, submitted new plans for the mine shortly before his death.

Now Fred, the masterly exponent of the Steam Age, has gone to that great chimney in the sky, a victim of cancer. As they say in Lancashire: "They just don't make them like that any more."

[Abandon]

ee by gum..

[HarryHacker]

zzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

[astral]

Interesting Story.

and the relevance to Thailand?????????????????????????

[Explorer]

none!!!??

Explorer

[Stocky]

Doesn't say if he was cremated.

One last time up the chimney.