One Of A Kind Climbers

[chris_girard]

I've always loved the beautiful brick work that the masons did years ago on the industrial chimney stacks and the work of the steeplejack climbers.

Guys like Fred Dibnah are hard to find now, and OSHA and HSE officials would crap their pants if they saw anyone climb this way now, but they got the job done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuSW9kOBADo

 

[chris_girard]

Fred died of cancer at the age of 66, back in 2004.

R.I.P for a true working class bloke.

Fred Dibnah - The Last Chimney

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/945T56ZxFkE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[MasterBlaster]

That guy is so cool, what a gig he had!

Chris, here's how to embed videos;

1) Do NOT copy/paste the page url.
2) Click the "share" button - a embed button will appear underneath/to the left.
3) Scroll down and click the "embed" button - a blue highlighted address will appear.
4) Copy/paste THAT address in your post.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xuSW9kOBADo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Mick!]

After he finished the whole steeple jacking thing, he hosted a number of tv shows which highlighted England's industrial past, showing some of the engineering and achievements of the Industrial Revolution.
They were very good and attracted large audiences.
I believe he built a mine shaft in his own garden!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Why? Did he mine out of his back yard?

 

[chris_girard]

Chris, here's how to embed videos;

1) Do NOT copy/paste the page url.
2) Click the "share" button - a embed button will appear underneath/to the left.
3) Scroll down and click the "embed" button - a blue highlighted address will appear.
4) Copy/paste THAT address in your post.

Sweet, thanks Butch!

 

[chris_girard]

Why? Did he mine out of his back yard?

By the looks of Fred, he probably would have mined his own coal, and burned it as well.

Gotta love guys like Fred.

 

[chris_girard]

Fred's backyard...after he passed away.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ovMe4Qe4bBs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Shows Fred's mine shaft.

Sad tribute to a generation of hard workers, forever gone.

 

[Mick!]

Why? Did he mine out of his back yard?

Just for laughs as I recall,though the neighbours weren't laughing.

 

[woodworkingboy]

That was great, Chris, as are the other vids of Fred's life. Thanks for posting. Quite a bloke, and judging by the people at his funeral, Fred was a very beloved man. i like how he changed the name of his steam engine from that of his first wife, to that of his second.

 

[chris_girard]

Thanks, I love posting about unique individuals and their life experiences.

I grew up in an old working class French-Canadian neighborhood. The town was a true New England mill town right down to the tall brick chimneys in the 2 industrial mills. My mom and dad's family immigrated from Quebec back in the 1800's and helped settled and build the mills. They were plumbers and electricians and actually helped bring the power from the mills to the Town of Suncook in N.H.

The last working mill there was in the 1980's. I was 17 years old when there was a great fire that lit up the whole Town one night. We were living about 2 miles out of town. My brother woke me up at 1:00 am to say the downtown was on fire. Our parents were away, so my brother and I got on our bikes and peddled into town. There, the entire textile mill was lit up in flames. We couldn't get too close because the heat was so intense. We stayed there the rest of the night with around 200 people from the town and slowly watched a piece of history burn to the ground.

I remember standing there with 80 year old retired mill workers living by the American Legion and VFW Posts by the mill talking about life during the industrial age downtown and how it will never be the same again...they were so right.

The next morning, all that was left of the great mill were a few walls...and that tremendous chimney.

 

[woodworkingboy]

The old working man's world that you mention is greatly inspirational in a number of respects. I also experienced it for a couple of years in Great Britain. There is something unseen that moves you along on the same path that many others have followed, you can feel it. When the majority of the towns are mainly of one trade, or were so, you can especially get a sense of it. It's imbedded in the atmosphere of the factories, and in the lanes where people walked to and from work.