Beginnings The Fred Dibnah Story

This series of programmes is about a man's climb to a sort of fame,

and the effect it had on his life.

Fred Dibnah, the Bolton steeplejack, was 40

when, back in 1978, he took part in the first of 19 films

which would record the ups and downs of his career.

From his earliest days, Fred had set his heart on a life at the top.

When I were a very small boy, and I used to go to school on the tram,

you would see little fellas with flat caps, way up in t'sky on top of factory chimneys.

It fascinated me as to how they got all the platforms up round the top.

And life passed by, like,

and I, er, passed a scholarship to the art school,

where my attitude to life changed.

I thought I'd end up with a clean-hand job, you know?

Well, they had different ideas.

They said, "You're good with hammer and chisel. Be a cabinet-maker."

So they sent me to an undertaker's, you see, where...

Bloody hell, all them boxes! And trestles. Even the undertaker himself looked like a corpse!

So I thought, "I don't fancy this."

So I got on me bike and went to t'Youth Employment Office.

They said, "We've got a good job joinering." So I became a joiner.

At t'weekend, I'd go out pointing houses, and I got enough money to buy five ladders.

One day, lo and behold, the vicar of Bolton, Canon Norburn, rung up.

"Will you come and look at me church tower?" It were the biggest thing in town.

BELL PEALS

All the other vicars round the town,

I could waltz in and see them, knowing I'd been allowed to have a go at that.

I could do their lesser churches.

Then, after that, I've never been out of work since. It made me day!

# Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;

# Praise Him, all creatures here below;

# Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;

# Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. #

Fred's opening move in the factory chimney side of the business

had been to clap a little one on his mother's house!

For the rest of her life he had to sweep it, because nobody else would.

-Where have you been?

-We're doing our best. It'll be done smartly. As speedily as possible.

-How long has it been smoking?

-Oh, a month or two.

-A month or two?! Why didn't you tell me?

You normally do, don't you?

-Pardon?

-You normally cause bother...

-You've not time to do anything for me!

-Oh, I know.

Right, stick it up, Donald.

We've got it a bit...

MOTHER: He's not a bricklayer, but he built that.

Ooh, it was awful. I didn't want him to do that.

The Evening News came round to take the photograph when I was at work.

I built this chimney when I were about 17 years old.

We had a stack like the one next door, with five pots on. Four were disused and smoke only went up one.

I thought, "We'll take these four down and build a chimney stack."

I didn't design it. I just built it. It just ended up that shape!

Everybody said I were crazy! But it's never cracked.

And it's got a lovely draught on it. Suck your house slippers off, when it's going at t'bottom!

He went to art school.

When he was 17 you'd think he'd work in an office, not doing what he does.

LOUD WHOOSH

Miaow! >

It's not so pleasant on a Monday morning, when it's cold, the wind's blowing and you look up,

and you think, "Oh, good God!" and so on!

This year, it's been windy nearly every day.

I don't think we've had a month

when the weather's been decent.

-It's either been blowing a force nine, or raining, or...

-COUGHS

..snowing, or freezing cold.

So you suffer.

Summer's best, when t'sun's shining,

and everybody down below's all sweating away inside,

and you're up there with a nice, cool breeze blowing. Beautiful!

This particular job - I've got the contract for £7,000 to knock it down, a brick at once,

right down to the bottom.

WIND HOWLS

The reason for the price were I didn't really want the job.

If it had been a repair job,

which, you know, on average takes a month, five weeks, it's not so bad.

But when it comes into months and months, it's a bit different.

Furthermore, when there's only one of you, and such a gigantic pile of bricks,

you need a stout heart to take it on.

The Briary here - there's too many buildings to drop the thing, or blow it up, as some people do.

The chairman of Courtaulds won't let it be blown up, so I've got to knock it down a brick at once.

Now we're in with a chance to get summat done. We've got everything working according to how it should.

Like the chute at the bottom.

You can have trouble if you don't get the plates right.

They get bunged up and the bloke at the bottom has to clear the bricks.

You've got to make sure he's out the way, cos if you drop one and it hits him on t'neck, he's dead!

Really, you're dicing with death with a rotten old top on the chimney.

There's been a lot of men died fiddling with them things.

I've never fell off a big chimney.

You only fall off one of them once!

One day, I fell off a pair of steps in a little girl's bedroom.

I landed on a drilling machine and knocked meself unconscious.

I don't remember much about it, but t'morning after I couldn't get out of bed.

I had to stay there for three weeks! That's about the only injury I've ever done meself.

Donald, my labourer down there, he's a very important man.

You've got to have a man who's got a reasonable amount in grey matter.

Like here, this noise of these fans going, it's impossible to shout.

If you get some young lad, his heart can be in t'right place, but if he sees a girl,

he wanders away when you need him. You look down and he's gone!

In the past, like, I've had lots of labourers. Some drank rather a lot.

Sort of led me astray, in a way!

Donald, he's a staunch teetotaller,

so in lots of ways he's a good ambassador for me. He keeps me out of the pub!

-Look at that! Summat gone wrong with it, Donald!

-It is that, Fred!

The bricks are coming out at t'hole all right, aren't they?

Cheese butties again!

-I don't think we'll get a yard a day off.

-No.

-Just about time for doing holidays.

-I'll be lucky.

I get fed up if I keep looking up there, you know?

Most steeplejacks I know,

people come and say, "He were always drunk when he went up!"

I wouldn't say that I've ever done it drunk,

but if you're banging away with a big hammer all day, a few pints don't do you any harm.

It sort of kills the pain, there's no doubt about that.

I've had characters work for me who in a morning, at nine o'clock, like,

they've got the shakes and have a hell of a job getting up.

But after they'd had about five pints at dinner time, they were quite full of beans!

In 20 years, I've only ever had two calamities.

One were a load of bricks fell on top of a blacksmith's shop and completely demolished it.

And I thought, "This is the end of my steeplejacking career!"

I can laugh now, but I didn't then!

When I come down, I were shaking all over! In the pub!

But Mr Courtauld decided that what I'd wrecked weren't worth keeping anyway,

so there were only a very small claim off the insurance people.

Now, I have to have a third party insurance policy for people like Courtaulds.

If I kill one of their operatives, I'm in dire trouble!

I mean, they'd commandeer me traction engine or summat!

Insurance men and me don't mix, you know?

The thing is, I don't intend dying.

It's a bit like being a motor car racer, or this fella who jumps over cliffs on his motorbike.

I bet he's not got life insurance! If he has, it'll cost him a fortune.

No, I don't really bother with that side of it.

I know one thing - I ain't gonna die... There's no doubt I'm gonna die in bed with me boots on!

Has anybody rung up today?

No. I went to town this morning, shopping.

Spending all me money again?

Mummy, there HAS been a man rung up for Daddy, when Jane phoned.

That's right. He didn't leave any name.

-What did he sound like?

-I never spoke to him...

Happy at work, devoted family man,

Fred had a competing interest to which he was addicted -

this 1912 Aveling and Porter steamroller, which had taken him 14 years to rebuild.

This thing and me - it's a "death do us part" job,

because it's nearly caused divorce and much upset in the household,

and no holidays and all that.

"You love your bloody steamroller more than you love me!" and that.

A lot of men who have these things go through it, especially the ones who have one engine and one wife!

Me wife complains that I spend more time here than I do over there in the house, you see.

I suppose in a way it's better than being down the pub all night,

or out womanising, or breaking and entering or summat!

Well, it never had a name when I got it.

So we were gonna christen it. When it made loads of row, I thought, "We'll call it Thunderbolt!"

Then I thought I might gain some grace if I call it after the wife.

I keep telling her, "It's not every woman who's got a steamroller named after her."

WHISTLE BLOWS

CLATTERS LOUDLY

Oh, steeplejacking's a bit of a spasmodic job.

So you can play with your steam engine instead.

It's a bit like being very rich.

You know, you can just have a day off when you want, like.

Lots of people who I've come to know over the years with the chimneys say,

"You spend too much time playing with your steam engine! You should get our job done."

Which in some ways is very true.

I have neglected me business and, well, everything, really,

for the sake of ten ton of iron.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Well, the job is getting more urgent now.

You've about 30 or 40 feet to point and one or two bands want replacing.

-Really, we've got to get you on the job. We can't wait much longer.

-Don't worry!

-I'll...

-But I am worried, because we want to get this job put right.

-We've got the mill in good order, and we want the chimney in good order.

-Nothing will fall off.

-Good.

I'll be here as soon as the last few bricks at the Lilac have gone.

-You will have me then till your job's finished. I won't go nowhere else.

-Good.

Morning, Lenny.

-When could you do the job for us?

-This is another problem. It would be towards next winter.

There again, if summer's nice and healthy, we might end up here pretty quick.

-Could you complete it by the end of October?

-Possibly.

TOOTS WHISTLE

-Morning, Mr Shephard.

-All right?

Fred managed to keep his engine in coal and his head above water

with some big chimney felling jobs.

On a Sunday in 1979, he did one at Rochdale,

which, unforeseeably, set him on the road to fame.

Fred, these two chimneys want dropping.

When you've got rid of t'mill, there'll be plenty of room.

I come the other day and had a look.

-There's an house over there on that corner. If we can keep it away from that...

-Go towards the canal side.

-And we don't block t'canal up as well!

-Make sure we don't!

Why not try and do both at t'same time?!

-Two for the price of one(?)

-Oh, aye.

Mmm. Well.

Four hundred for t'little 'un, and five hundred for t'big 'un.

-That's the cheapest you can do, is it?

-Oh, aye. Aye.

-You'll soon be a millionaire at that rate!

Yeah, I think I can manage them without blocking t'canal up,

doing any damage, breaking windows.

My main competition is the dynamite men.

When it comes to felling a chimney, they'll come along and, you know, blow it up in half a day.

So they only need... quarter of t'money I want.

So that's why, on television, every one you see going down is blown up.

There's none of them done with the pit props and the big fire like they did it in 1899.

Which, um...you know, I like doing it that way, cos it's more spectacular, and it's, um...

You get a bit of a build-up to it.

Whereas when you press that plunger, boom, that's it.

It's over with. You've not really done so much.

You've destroyed something that it took a few men a long time to erect.

A lot of hard, bloody sweat and labour. When they finished it off, no doubt, they put a Union Jack up.

You've blown it up pressing a button.

Whereas if you've got to hack your way through three foot of brickwork at the bottom,

with a few hundred ton squeezing on it, it's not died too easy, has it?

CHISELLING

It's unbelievable, this! We shouldn't be here today, really!

I've had instances where people have come, where I've wanted a couple of hundred pounds, for £25!

Madmen, you know? No pit props, nothing. Just chop the bottom out, like a tree.

They don't know to an hour when it's gonna go. Just keep bashing.

And when it's creaking and groaning, just run over the road!

You don't need anything - only a sledgehammer and a bit of lunacy -

and you're in business!

Then you come on the insurance men.

They'll send some little lad out from their office, who's never seen a chimney fall down,

and he's gotta work out the risks.

By the time it's gone back to HQ, it could have been Groucho Marx knocking it down. Which upsets me.

When I think of all the ones I've done that have gone OK,

and yet the premiums keep going up all the time.

Well, I've nearly given them up now.

There's nowt in t'way I'll do it and take it on me own back. Good luck to them men.

I mean, they've got big Jags and pinstripe suits, and what have I got?

Second-hand bloody Army Land Rover.

I just about manage to keep that going!

DRILLING

Some years ago, I were doing one that when you come home at night,

I thought, "Christ! I hope the bugger goes right!" Because we'd only got 60ft to get it in.

I came home and I'm having me tea in the kitchen, and it come on the TV, "Here's one that went wrong."

I knew it were summat up in t'chimney line.

I run in t'front room just in time to see this factory chimney, chhhh, straight through the mill!

Just been kitted out for a three-shift system. It's still shut, that mill, somewhere in Yorkshire.

Chopped the mill in half! Well, them were the dynamite men.

Well, how do you think I should feel after that? When I've gotta do this one...

They'd got a field to get theirs in. I'd gotta get it down a 60ft slot.

From that day to the Sunday that we did it, my nervous system weren't too good!

HAMMERING

A bit more wood round this side.

Plenty wood on there.

Morning.

We'll give it a general sousing over after.

Ooh, yeah. Yeah, we'll hear it roar.

-Fred!

-What, love?

-How are you going on?

-All right, love.

How are you?

-We'll be safe over there, won't we?

-I hope so! Yeah, I think so.

D'you want me to light it, like I usually do, or not?

-I usually light it, and then he...

-Leave me alone! I don't know!

-Then he takes it off me.

-Oh, light the fire, you mean?

-Mmm.

-Yeah, yeah.

Oh, he's panicking like buggery.

-Who do you mean?

-The Welsh fella.

-The factory inspector.

-Everything's beautiful.

You don't think it's gonna go that way? The wind's blowing that way.

"If it goes backwards," he says. It's a three million to one chance!

-He says, "What's in that tank?"

-I don't bloody know. He asked me too.

-He's nervous.

-Anyway, that having been said,

we will let you know when we've got all the evacuation done.

-We're sealing this road off.

-Yeah.

-With white incident tape.

< Can we have everybody out, please? Beyond the white tape.

A DOG BARKS

Let it get going. Turn it round a bit.

That's it. Great. Now, then, right in t'middle, there.

Right, you can give it to me now.

Thank you.

Bloody thing won't burn!

Won't be long now.

D'you see it moving? The stick?

That stick?

I hope the bloody thing goes.

It's going! Going!

HE SOUNDS A HOOTER

Did you like that?

Right in the right shop, innit?

Give us a kiss, love!

Are you all right?

It were a good 'un. I knew it. I had every ounce of confidence in that one. We just got it right.

Subtitles by Judith Russell BBC Scotland, 1996