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It's going! Going! | 0:00:11 | 0:00:13 | |
HE TOOTS HORN | 0:00:13 | 0:00:17 | |
Done for! | 0:00:31 | 0:00:34 | |
Did you like that? | 0:00:39 | 0:00:42 | |
Apart from his work on chimneys and spires, | 0:01:00 | 0:01:05 | |
Fred Dibnah has devoted his life to steam. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:09 | |
Over 20 years, he rebuilt one steam-engine and got well on the way with another. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:16 | |
Now, at nearly 50, he had achieved the ambition he had cherished from youth - | 0:01:18 | 0:01:25 | |
this great steam-driven workshop in his backyard. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:29 | |
Made from scrap and the surviving parts of Victorian machines, | 0:01:31 | 0:01:37 | |
it now had the capacity to restore whole fleets of steam-engines | 0:01:37 | 0:01:42 | |
and to serve the Fred Dibnahs of the future - if there are any - for centuries to come. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:50 | |
Over the years, Fred had by no means neglected the improvement of the family quarters. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:04 | |
Since you were last here, I bought me house off the Earl of Bradford. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:10 | |
This character rung up from Cambridge and said, "We're coming up to have a chat with you." | 0:02:10 | 0:02:17 | |
He said that Mr... I forget his name, but he wanted to look at the steam-engines. | 0:02:17 | 0:02:23 | |
And I thought, "Ah, Cambridge! They're big steam men down there! | 0:02:23 | 0:02:28 | |
"They'll come...up and...I'll impress 'em with me steam-engines, | 0:02:28 | 0:02:35 | |
"and get a bit knocked off price of t'house." | 0:02:35 | 0:02:38 | |
So, up they came... It were raining that day, so I didn't go to work, | 0:02:38 | 0:02:44 | |
and we had t'steamroller ticking over in the shed, | 0:02:44 | 0:02:48 | |
and this man from Cambridge said, "Well, how much will you give me?" | 0:02:48 | 0:02:54 | |
You know, for this 'ere house. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:57 | |
So I went and showed him all the bad points. | 0:02:57 | 0:03:00 | |
There's a nine-inch bulge at the back. It's a bloody wonder it's not all in the river! | 0:03:00 | 0:03:07 | |
Time went by and, cutting a long story short, | 0:03:07 | 0:03:11 | |
we got it...for £5,000 - all this land and everything! | 0:03:11 | 0:03:16 | |
So, now it's up to me to stop the bloody thing slipping into the river. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:22 | |
Right... Next one, Donald. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
Mind you don't fall off there. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
You've got the square bit out the middle. It don't matter, really. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:56 | |
Just... Just keep screwing. | 0:03:56 | 0:03:58 | |
It'll do, that. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:01 | |
Hup... That's it. Beautiful. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
When we first came, you know, | 0:04:08 | 0:04:11 | |
we noticed this great, nasty bulge on the back, | 0:04:11 | 0:04:16 | |
and I thought, "I know why they gave me this cheap! Bloody back's going to fall out!" | 0:04:16 | 0:04:22 | |
Then, one day, I were lying in bed and there were one 'ell of a bang! | 0:04:22 | 0:04:27 | |
And I thought, "The outside four-and-a-half's fell out of the bloody place!" | 0:04:27 | 0:04:34 | |
But it were actually a gas explosion, you know! | 0:04:34 | 0:04:38 | |
The wife came running upstairs screaming, no eyebrows...! | 0:04:38 | 0:04:43 | |
A big hole burnt in t'front of her dress! | 0:04:43 | 0:04:47 | |
Bloody gas cooker had blown up! | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
Hitherto, Fred had regarded his domain merely as a shelter for his steam-engines and his family. | 0:04:56 | 0:05:01 | |
Now he began to feel pride in its possession and its idyllic situation. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:08 | |
My house is...just over there, behind all them trees. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:14 | |
In between there and here, there's the river. This is the cemetery, | 0:05:14 | 0:05:19 | |
where we'll all end up eventually. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:22 | |
In here, actually, there's the first, the only man, I think, in Bolton to be killed by a lion! | 0:05:22 | 0:05:29 | |
Seems they'd not got the preparations right, like. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:34 | |
They got this big cage at the local wakes week in 1890 or summat... | 0:05:34 | 0:05:39 | |
And they had these braziers with big, long iron rods. And somebody forgot to light the bloody fires... | 0:05:39 | 0:05:47 | |
Anyway, the lion got the man and they had no red-hot iron rods to get it off him. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:53 | |
So he ended up in 'ere, poor fella. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:56 | |
Me Dad used to tell me about a big flood we had that washed one or two of them down the river. | 0:05:56 | 0:06:04 | |
I don't know if there's any truth in it, but I know that down on that river bed | 0:06:04 | 0:06:10 | |
there's all sorts of gravestones. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:13 | |
When my time comes, you know, | 0:06:13 | 0:06:16 | |
I think...you couldn't find a more peaceful cemetery than this. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:22 | |
It's nice and quiet, they cut the grass regularly... | 0:06:22 | 0:06:26 | |
Not that you'd notice when you're six foot under, | 0:06:26 | 0:06:30 | |
but it's nicer than being turned into a little plastic bag or tin can full of fag ash, innit? | 0:06:30 | 0:06:38 | |
Besides, I'd like to build me own gravestone, | 0:06:38 | 0:06:42 | |
make one like a chimney with the lightning conductor on and everything! Very fancy! | 0:06:42 | 0:06:49 | |
-One with a beautiful, fancy top on it! -CHURCH BELLS CHIME | 0:06:49 | 0:06:55 | |
The place is getting a bit overcrowded now and we decided that we'd build a new wing on it. | 0:06:55 | 0:07:03 | |
The thing is, with it being a listed building, everything's got to look just right. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:10 | |
So, you need second-hand bricks. After many months of looking around | 0:07:10 | 0:07:15 | |
at various buildings that were about to have the big hammer, | 0:07:15 | 0:07:20 | |
we found about ten houses in one row and six of 'em had never been messed about with or anything. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:27 | |
The bricks were a perfect match for the existing ones. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:31 | |
So, we went with two Land Rovers - the wife, me, Donald, me father-in-law and another lad - | 0:07:31 | 0:07:38 | |
and we literally took the front out of six of 'em and brought 'em back here to build the place out of. | 0:07:38 | 0:07:46 | |
Then the lad who did the drawings got carried away with his fancy stonework - and stone's expensive. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:53 | |
But then we met this vicar, who said, | 0:07:53 | 0:07:57 | |
"I've got all these gravestones here. Take 'em if you like." | 0:07:57 | 0:08:02 | |
So they now are the window heads, the mullions and the window bottoms. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:08 | |
I'm a bit worried the bloody place will be haunted when it's finished! | 0:08:08 | 0:08:13 | |
-Ah! That's it, is it? -That's it. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:19 | |
Yeah... Do you think we'll get it off him, like? | 0:08:19 | 0:08:23 | |
-I'll have a word with him. I'll see him tonight, cos I'm doing a job for him. -Good. -When I came up last time, | 0:08:23 | 0:08:31 | |
-I spotted it, but didn't say anything to him then. -Yeah, it'd be just right, eh? | 0:08:31 | 0:08:38 | |
Wonder if he's got another one somewhere. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:41 | |
-Do you think we can get it off him? -Yeah, cos I know the owner. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:46 | |
He's a teacher. He mentioned that he'd like to bring the kids to your yard to see the engines. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:55 | |
-So, I could work a deal. He can bring the kids down if he lets you have this stone ball... -Yeah! | 0:08:55 | 0:09:03 | |
I'm game if he is! | 0:09:03 | 0:09:05 | |
-OK? -Yeah. -This is where the Tarzan act comes in, eh? | 0:09:05 | 0:09:11 | |
Right... | 0:09:15 | 0:09:17 | |
That's it. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:24 | |
-All right? -Yeah, got it. | 0:09:24 | 0:09:26 | |
Now... This is the one. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:32 | |
You all right, Fred? | 0:09:32 | 0:09:34 | |
..Got it. | 0:09:40 | 0:09:42 | |
-Right... -We've to get it on that pin. -Yeah. | 0:09:42 | 0:09:46 | |
Wait a minute... We might all end up with big wotsits if...! | 0:09:46 | 0:09:51 | |
-..That's it. -How's that? -Superb! | 0:09:51 | 0:09:53 | |
-How does it look? -Looks all right from up here. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:57 | |
These are terrific, aren't they? | 0:10:00 | 0:10:03 | |
Yeah, better than the other thing! | 0:10:03 | 0:10:05 | |
-Let's go downstairs and look at it... -Yeah, from across the road. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:11 | |
Don't think it'll blow away so easy, will it? | 0:10:11 | 0:10:15 | |
BLAST OF STEAM WHISTLE | 0:10:17 | 0:10:19 | |
DOG WHINES | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
Every summer, when the children were young, Fred and Alison made the epic journey | 0:10:29 | 0:10:33 | |
at a stately 4mph to a steam rally at Chelford in Cheshire. | 0:10:33 | 0:10:38 | |
A steam-engine, really, | 0:10:51 | 0:10:54 | |
gives you... sort of a form of immortality. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:58 | |
To actually resurrect one from a pile of rust, | 0:10:58 | 0:11:03 | |
you know, you've got your stamp on it. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:06 | |
When I'm long dead, they'll still be here... | 0:11:06 | 0:11:10 | |
Even if they drop the bomb, they'd blow all the houses down, | 0:11:10 | 0:11:15 | |
but they'd just roll this into some ditch. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:19 | |
Someone would eventually find it and say, "Hmm, this is interesting! | 0:11:19 | 0:11:24 | |
"I wonder when they made these!" | 0:11:24 | 0:11:27 | |
You've got to have a very good wife if you have a steam-engine...! One that understands you! | 0:11:28 | 0:11:36 | |
When I got married, things were a bit rough as far as steam-engines were concerned. | 0:11:36 | 0:11:42 | |
Divorce proceedings were imminent on quite a lot of occasions. | 0:11:42 | 0:11:47 | |
-But as the years rolled by, Alison, me wife, has got to like it all. -STEAM WHISTLE | 0:11:47 | 0:11:54 | |
-ALISON: -I have a good mother and she used to help me a lot. | 0:11:54 | 0:12:01 | |
Or when we had no money, cos something was bought for the engine, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:06 | |
I could always go and get food off her, or she'd fetch me something round. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:12 | |
And she'd see kids were OK for clothes. And me sisters would fetch me clothes for them. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:19 | |
The steam men, with the engines, very few of them are married. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:24 | |
They think that women and steam-engines don't mix | 0:12:24 | 0:12:28 | |
and they tend to look down on any wife that arrives. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:32 | |
They think you might get them to get rid of their engines. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:37 | |
I decided when Lorna was 18 months there was too many drunken men coming round, | 0:12:37 | 0:12:44 | |
so it was either the children and me or the drunken men, and the children won. | 0:12:44 | 0:12:51 | |
So the drunks went and the girls ended up in the coal bunker - a victory for family life. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:58 | |
BAND PLAYS THEME FROM THE DAM BUSTERS | 0:12:58 | 0:13:02 | |
Right, come on over. You can get out now. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:08 | |
We have a friend, Eric Marshall, who sort of... He grows radishes. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:19 | |
Right nice bloke, he is. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:22 | |
We called him the radish king. He got his own back on this fella. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:26 | |
Filled his bloody coal bunker up wi' radishes! | 0:14:26 | 0:14:30 | |
Where's your dad? Have you seen him or have we lost him? | 0:14:35 | 0:14:39 | |
Bloody thing would do about 70mph. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:42 | |
He went along t'motorway one day and he set fire to a field! | 0:14:42 | 0:14:47 | |
Caused three car crashes and burnt a power supply down... | 0:14:47 | 0:14:52 | |
When they caught up with him, 70 miles further on, he said, "It weren't me!" | 0:14:52 | 0:14:59 | |
We've had some fun down 'ere - no doubt about it. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:02 | |
-Yeah. -Poor old Jim, dead and gone now. He was there, and we had a few yobbos round at night. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:10 | |
And they said, "We're going to get on this engine and drive it." Jim said, "No, you're not." He was about 73. | 0:15:10 | 0:15:18 | |
-He had a finger missing, didn't he? -Yeah, that was an engine. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:23 | |
So he's stood on his engine, and these lads were, you know, "We're getting on!" | 0:15:23 | 0:15:29 | |
And he just got hold of the fire shovel and he went BANG, BANG! | 0:15:29 | 0:15:35 | |
I forgot to fetch me vegetable knife from home. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:40 | |
You can't remember everything. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:42 | |
He backs the engine up the field, top gear, straight through this gate, | 0:15:42 | 0:15:47 | |
where you have to take a sharp, right-hand turn. So, he had a go and went straight into a battery house. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:55 | |
Bloody hens flew everywhere! I'll never forget it! | 0:15:55 | 0:16:00 | |
-Fred, got a minute? It's raining and the quilt's wet. -Pull the mattress off t'shelf, then. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:07 | |
-Fred, it'll wash it up! -They're all wet. -Are they? | 0:16:07 | 0:16:11 | |
-Yeah. -Bad? -Well... -They won't be that bad, will they? | 0:16:11 | 0:16:15 | |
-Leave the bucket there till it's stopped dripping. -But there's TWO drips. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:21 | |
-Put the bowl on t'other one. -I'm using it for the potatoes. -Well... | 0:16:21 | 0:16:27 | |
-What about that bucket there? -It's... -It don't leak. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:31 | |
-All right, but it's dirty. -Well, the beds are better dirty than wet. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:37 | |
-Bloody sun's stopped shining, hasn't it? -It'll be right tomorrow. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:45 | |
-It's doing the ground good. -Making t'bloody grass grow! -Aye! | 0:16:45 | 0:16:50 | |
It's the only way you can find out, Fred, if your caravan roof leaks! | 0:16:50 | 0:16:56 | |
All over my bloody bed, it is! | 0:16:56 | 0:16:58 | |
-Depends what side you've got the missus on! -She sleeps on the floor! -LAUGHTER > | 0:16:58 | 0:17:05 | |
That's it.... | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
For Alison, the fun of steam rallies was diminishing. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:12 | |
Her thoughts turned increasingly to sunnier vacations, | 0:17:12 | 0:17:17 | |
beyond the range of Fred's roller. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:20 | |
I've said every year, "I would like a holiday, Fred." | 0:17:20 | 0:17:24 | |
And he wouldn't like a holiday. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:27 | |
Other wives go on holiday, | 0:17:27 | 0:17:30 | |
so why can't I? | 0:17:30 | 0:17:33 | |
What Alison had in mind was this sort of thing - Greece or suchlike. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:39 | |
But that was the snag. Fred had been abroad once, when he was in the army...and he didn't like it. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:47 | |
There's nothing in Greece for a man like me. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:52 | |
I believe there's some decent buildings, but I couldn't bear... | 0:17:52 | 0:17:58 | |
lying there on the bloody sand all day. It isn't really my style. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:05 | |
A bit vain, people like that, aren't they? | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
They lie in the sun, so that when they come back to grotty old England, everybody'll think, | 0:18:08 | 0:18:15 | |
"Where have they been? They must've been abroad!" | 0:18:15 | 0:18:19 | |
It's all one-upmanship, innit, the holiday job, really? | 0:18:19 | 0:18:24 | |
With each passing summer, Alison's thoughts turned to the golden beaches of the travel brochures. | 0:18:26 | 0:18:32 | |
She was determined to get there. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:35 | |
Me and the girls are going to Greece. I've waited 18 years... | 0:18:35 | 0:18:40 | |
We're going to enjoy ourselves, get sunburnt. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:45 | |
Then, of course, we'll be going to Stockport, to an engine rally. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:51 | |
Er... He'll enjoy it. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
And I'LL enjoy MY holiday! | 0:18:54 | 0:18:57 | |
Well, he IS grown-up now. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:01 | |
He'll do all right. He says he can cook eggs and chips... He'll be OK for drinks, | 0:19:01 | 0:19:08 | |
as long as he remembers he's got the kettle on... | 0:19:08 | 0:19:12 | |
I just booked, and told him, and when he started complaining, I went and paid for it. | 0:19:12 | 0:19:19 | |
He's very upset about it. In fact, it's making him ill! | 0:19:19 | 0:19:24 | |
Yeah, it is! | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
But I'm still going on holiday! | 0:19:27 | 0:19:30 | |
TRADITIONAL GREEK MUSIC | 0:19:36 | 0:19:39 | |
TV: 'Thunderstorms brought flooding to several main roads - | 0:20:34 | 0:20:40 | |
'in places, up to two feet deep. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:42 | |
'The fire brigade had many calls from householders, | 0:20:42 | 0:20:46 | |
'and some people had to paddle to work.' | 0:20:46 | 0:20:50 | |
CHOIR SINGS HYMN: Abide With Me | 0:20:59 | 0:21:02 | |
# Swift to its close | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
# Ebbs out life's little day | 0:21:05 | 0:21:12 | |
# Earth's joys grow dim | 0:21:12 | 0:21:17 | |
# Its glories pass away | 0:21:17 | 0:21:26 | |
# Change and decay | 0:21:26 | 0:21:30 | |
# In all around I see | 0:21:30 | 0:21:38 | |
# O, Thou who changest not | 0:21:38 | 0:21:45 | |
# Abide with me. # | 0:21:45 | 0:21:54 | |
Well, on their arrival back from Greece, they informed me that, er, they want a divorce, like. | 0:21:54 | 0:22:02 | |
They don't like the world of steam-engines and factory chimneys. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:07 | |
I don't know why. Bloody chimneys have kept us alive for 18 years. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:12 | |
Life, really, at this moment in time... | 0:22:12 | 0:22:16 | |
It had got to a stage where we could more or less semi-retire. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:21 | |
Now it looks as though I've got to get a mortgage and work for another 18 years to buy Alison a house | 0:22:21 | 0:22:29 | |
and fix her up in the style she's got accustomed to. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:33 | |
Fred began to muster his assets, including, | 0:22:35 | 0:22:37 | |
regretfully, his 1927 AJS motorbike. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
The same machine, round about 1924, but with an overhead-valve engine, won the Isle of Man TT. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:48 | |
It were made when England made the best motorbikes in the world. Not so now. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:55 | |
I once went to Leeds on this, you know! Yeah! | 0:22:55 | 0:22:59 | |
Hell of a journey. Over Blackstone Edge... Bloody winter and all! | 0:22:59 | 0:23:04 | |
Yeah... Me hands were frozen t'handlebars. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:08 | |
HE TOOTS HORN | 0:23:15 | 0:23:17 | |
This bike, up till 1969, I rode for ten years every day when I first started steeplejacking. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:31 | |
I'd take the ladders on the wagon and go to work on this. I always knew it were worth a bob or two, | 0:23:31 | 0:23:39 | |
and now that I'm a bit desperate for money, it's got to go. | 0:23:39 | 0:23:45 | |
It's a great pity, really. But I suppose at an auction, like Sotheby's, it'll be... | 0:23:45 | 0:23:52 | |
If two lunatics bid against each other, I might make a couple of grand. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:59 | |
It were a shame, really. It's one of the few things that I've had to part with that I really liked. | 0:24:00 | 0:24:07 | |
We got the thing there and there were that many people, you couldn't move hardly. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:14 | |
And I got £1,700. It were knocked down at 1,700 quid. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:18 | |
It was a man from Macclesfield. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:21 | |
I'll weigh that into the building society for the war efforts. | 0:24:21 | 0:24:26 | |
I'll not see any of it, | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
but at least it'll help with the payments...and all... | 0:24:29 | 0:24:34 | |
I went away the other Friday to open a solid fuel shop at Bury and when I came back she'd moved on. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:42 | |
Alone with his thoughts, Fred came to see celebrity business stress | 0:24:42 | 0:24:48 | |
as one cause of their domestic troubles. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:53 | |
AUDIENCE APPLAUDS | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
-Oh, the computer! -LAUGHTER | 0:24:58 | 0:25:03 | |
People have said to me, like, | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
"You looked out of place when you were doing that" and I've actually felt out of place. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:13 | |
Bloody glamorous grandmother contests! What the hell do I know?! | 0:25:13 | 0:25:18 | |
You know... It's not really my scene. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:22 | |
CATS MEOW | 0:25:22 | 0:25:25 | |
I don't think they like me. I don't think they like me, cats. It's stuck in! | 0:25:27 | 0:25:34 | |
'Sometimes the bloody pressure of it all, it gets a bit too much. | 0:25:38 | 0:25:43 | |
'I don't think Alison was a person who liked excessive pressure.' | 0:25:43 | 0:25:49 | |
You know, she were more a person who were quite content to sit there watching telly and... | 0:25:49 | 0:25:56 | |
you know, just go out and do the things that she wanted to do... | 0:25:56 | 0:26:00 | |
without having this extra load thrust on her back. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:05 | |
And there's no doubt whatsoever, she were a good help to me. | 0:26:05 | 0:26:11 | |
-Fancy a go on that? -Yeah! No! | 0:26:38 | 0:26:43 | |
Did you enjoy that? A little bit tight, weren't it? | 0:26:48 | 0:26:53 | |
Here you are. We'll just have these then we'll zoom off. | 0:26:56 | 0:27:01 | |
Give us a kiss, love? | 0:27:11 | 0:27:13 | |
You all right? | 0:27:13 | 0:27:16 | |
You should always ask who they are. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:24 | |
Close your eyes. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:43 |