Fred Dibnah's Age Of Steam

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One day in October 1985, Dibnah attended a solid fuel exhibition in nearby Bury. Upon his return he discovered that Alison had left the house, taking with her their three children, the dog and some items of furniture. [61] Short of money, he was forced to sell his antique AJS motorcycle. [60] He found life without his family difficult but defended his wife: "There is no doubt whatsoever, she were a good help to me and I'm going to miss her. It was just that all the pressure got too much for her." [62] Second marriage [ edit ] Dibnah in 1981 I was slightly nervous shaking hands with the Queen. She asked me if I was still climbing chimneys. It beats me how she keeps tabs on everybody. I never thought I would be receiving an MBE. Sometimes he'll have busted his thumb because he's hit it with a hammer; you couldn't really expect him then to come in and start doing things in the house. I just don't think it's fair though, I think you've got to strike a balance and I think ours is about 90/10. Me for 90 per cent of the housework and Fred for 10." [68] Ogilvie. I. (Date unknown) Photograph of Fred Dibnah. [Online photograph] Available at: < https://images.app.goo.gl/6RcdTR8xNW7unLCa6> [Accessed 28 th April 2021]. a b Carney, Neil (2005), "On the buses' to 'up the ladders", in Langston, Keith (ed.), Fred Dibnah MBE Remembered: The life & times of a Great Briton 1938–2004, Mortons Media Group, ISBN 978-0-9542442-6-2

Anon (1996) The Fred Dibnah Story [Online Film] Available at: < https://youtu.be/wffv8YeoeeM> [Accessed 28th April 2021]. Dibnah died from bladder cancer in November 2004, aged 66. [2] Early life [ edit ] Childhood [ edit ]

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McBain, Gayle (2 October 2013), "17 facts you didn't know about Fred Dibnah", The Bolton News, Bolton , retrieved 15 January 2019 However, the strain of living with a man so dedicated to his hobbies began to take its toll on his wife: Television | Documentary in 1980", Awards Database, British Academy of Film and Television Arts , retrieved 2 May 2019 Attempts to sell the landmark property since have also proved unsuccessful. Read More Related Articles

Steam engines were his great passion, so much so that they put paid to his first marriage. His wife, Alison, left him in 1985, taking their three daughters with her and complaining: "He is married to his engines." No one quite like Fred...", Bolton Evening News, 8 November 2004, archived from the original on 18 July 2006 , retrieved 19 October 2009– via Famous Boltonians Dibnah died on 6November 2004, after suffering from cancer for three years. [97] He was 66 years old. [41] [98] The couple had their first child, a girl named Jayne, in June 1968. Alison was initially worried about her husband's occupation but learned to deal with the risk and to trust Fred. She organised his accounts and even collected debts. She also helped him demolish some of the chimneys that he worked on, by lighting the fire to burn away the temporary supports he had put in place. [31] Chimney felling [ edit ] In 1967, following disagreements over who should be invited to their wedding, Dibnah and 19-year-old hairdresser Alison Mary Foster eloped to Gretna Green, to get married. [3] [27] Dibnah had first spotted Alison from the top of a chimney and, when one day she walked into the pub where he was drinking, he asked her out; six weeks later, the two became engaged. [28] They left notes for their parents, caught a train to Carlisle and from there on a series of buses to Dumfries. They had initially planned to stay at the house of a friend but as he had returned to Bolton for his holidays, they stayed instead at a local farmhouse. The two had to be resident for at least 21days to be married and so Dibnah agreed to point the gable ends of a local hotel in exchange for bed and board.Dibnah's interest in steam power stemmed from his childhood observations of the steam locomotives on the nearby railway line, [36] and his visits to his father's workplace—a bleach works in Bolton—where he was fascinated by the steam engines used to drive the line shafting. [37] A small mill near his childhood home was sometimes mothballed and Dibnah once broke in: a b c "Fred Dibnah", The Times, London, 8 November 2004, archived from the original on 4 June 2011 , retrieved 18 October 2009

Chaudhari, Saiqa (23 March 2016), "Life and times of Fred Dibnah celebrated by folk band The Lancashire Hotpots", The Bolton News , retrieved 17 March 2019 Fred Dibnah Heritage Centre items sold at auction", BBC News, 18 March 2018 , retrieved 18 March 2018 a b "Fred's steam monster barred for his big day", Manchester Evening News, 8 July 2004 , retrieved 30 October 2009

A play titled The Demolition Man, based on his final years, was staged in 2011 at Bolton's Octagon Theatre. [107]

Through his television work Dibnah became famous for felling chimneys (by the time of his death he had felled 90), although it was one of his least favourite jobs. [58] As he made more films with Don Haworth, his outspoken views on changing society, work ethics and delinquency, made him the embodiment of the views of many of his fans and epitomised the view of a northern working man. [102] Anon (Date Unknown) Fred Dibnah’s Age of Steam [Online Film] Available at: < https://youtu.be/X_UrJI72Vsc> [Accessed 28 th April 2021]. FRED DIBNAH has always been a man out of his own time. Growing up a youth in the 1940s in Bolton, Lancashire, he lived near the railway lines and there began a lifelong fascination with steam locomotives. First marriage [ edit ] Dibnah's home, 121 Radcliffe Road, a former Victorian gatehouse in Bolton. Now the (closed) Fred Dibnah Heritage Centre The following year, he met Sue, 20 years his junior, whom he met at a steam-engine rally. They married in 1987, only to divorce in 1996. In 1998, Fred Dibnah married his third wife, Sheila.

And so it proved. Haworth's documentary about Dibnah won two awards and led to a host of other programmes over the next 25 years. Restoring the steamroller placed a heavy burden upon his marriage and Alison would often complain that her husband spent more time in the shed, repairing the engine, than he did in the house. He responded by naming the vehicle Alison, telling his wife "It's not every woman that has a steam engine named after her." [44] Alison eventually developed an affection for the antique vehicle, saying, "We've done without for so many years to get it built up. I couldn't bear to part with it. There's too much of us in it." [45] Anon (2016) The Day Fred Dibnah Brought Down the Ballyclare Paper Mill Chimney. [Online] Available at: www.loveballyclare.com>history>the-day-fred [Accessed 28 th April 2021].