# Fred Dibnah



## Rigsby (Jan 3, 2012)

OK OK I know this is going to sound kinda sad BUT!

I like to watch good old Fred doing is work. and his tour round Britain, and I was just wondering does anyone know what type of pocket watch he had on tv?


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## MerlinShepherd (Sep 18, 2011)

HOW?


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## Rigsby (Jan 3, 2012)

MerlinShepherd said:


> HOW?


How what??


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## Mutley (Apr 17, 2007)

MerlinShepherd said:


> HOW?


Wasn't that Fred Dinenage


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## MerlinShepherd (Sep 18, 2011)

Yes Mutley it was. It a kind of stupid "pun" that us middle aged gits can almost get away with...


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## Rigsby (Jan 3, 2012)

MerlinShepherd said:


> Yes Mutley it was. It a kind of stupid pun that us middle aged gits can almost get away with...


YOU saying I'm old!!!








artytime:









I know I am, but they still show his stuff today.


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## Rigsby (Jan 3, 2012)

Lets see the young try this today ldman:


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## MerlinShepherd (Sep 18, 2011)

No Rigsby, I was saying that I was old...making the confusion between Fred Dibnah and Fred Dinenage....


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## MerlinShepherd (Sep 18, 2011)

Rigsby said:


> Lets see the young try this today ldman:


F**king brilliant!


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## Rigsby (Jan 3, 2012)

MerlinShepherd said:


> No Rigsby, I was saying that I was old...making the confusion between Fred Dibnah and Fred Dinenage....


LOL, so do you know what type of make his pocket watch was?


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## Rigsby (Jan 3, 2012)

You know I admire this guy, he never asked for anything and worked his ass off. Just Google the guy or watch some of his early days and see how hard he worked! Just ASK some of the young today to climb a ladder and they will complain, this guy was something different!


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## Rigsby (Jan 3, 2012)

So can I take it we don't know what make his watch was then :dntknw:


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## MerlinShepherd (Sep 18, 2011)

I wish I could have been up that chimney tower with him and had the opportunity to ask him myself. Fred was a great man, not many like him still around.


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## Rigsby (Jan 3, 2012)

MerlinShepherd said:


> I wish I could have been *up that chimney tower with him* and had the opportunity to ask him myself. Fred was a great man, not many like him still around.


I would have been happy to wait for him to come down :swoon:


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## MerlinShepherd (Sep 18, 2011)

I've been up wind turbines, not chimneys. In fact I went up the UK's first wind turbine that was in the Dutch Garden at the Liverpool International Garden Festival in 1984. Bloody amazing up there, I think it was a Vestas 30kW, but it was a long time ago and I don't recall if they were in production back then. When the blades are turning and you're on the platform (the blades are as long as lorries) it's thrilling, the sheer power of it.


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## andyclient (Aug 1, 2009)

Fred was so cool and a genius , I work at height as a stevedore but nothing like that and we are all harnessed up now to.

Health and safety would have a fit if we still worked like Fred lol

No idea about his watch though im afraid


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## handlehall (Aug 7, 2009)

He came to where I used to work in Bolton to drop a chimney and I spent a couple of days doing even less work than normal watching him - he was exactly like he appeared on TV - very friendly and approachable.

I think they turned his house in the Haulgh into some sort of Dibnah - themed heritage centre so they may know if you are really desperate to find out.


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## tixntox (Jul 17, 2009)

I watched the video where they were getting the remnants of Fred's steam vehicles out of the "works" (or wuks as Fred would say) after the vandals (grrrrrrrr!) had been in (Fred Dibnah's Engines - A Moving Story. Fascinating recovery work and vehicles) It was so depressing seeing all that he had worked for and with going to rack and ruin! I understand that the "wuks" is now being run in a heritage centre style.

Did yer like that? 

Mike


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## Seismic one (Jun 21, 2008)

MerlinShepherd said:


> I've been up wind turbines, not chimneys. In fact I went up the UK's first wind turbine that was in the Dutch Garden at the Liverpool International Garden Festival in 1984. Bloody amazing up there, I think it was a Vestas 30kW, but it was a long time ago and I don't recall if they were in production back then. When the blades are turning and you're on the platform (the blades are as long as lorries) it's thrilling, the sheer power of it.


Try living next to 15 of them with three 60metre blades-not so amazing.

Now a hundred year old chronograph still working that is amazing.


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## MerlinShepherd (Sep 18, 2011)

I know people in eastern Germany who live within a few kilometres of over a hundred. It's pretty distressing and I know how people feel about them from pretty much all perspectives. My first ascension was in 1984 when they were new and no-one had had the misfortune of spending 24hrs a day near them..


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## Foxdog (Apr 13, 2011)

No idea about his watch, but I could 'Watch' him all day, what a legend of a man imo, wish I could have met him.


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## Rigsby (Jan 3, 2012)

Foxdog said:


> No idea about his watch, but I could 'Watch' him all day,* what a legend of a man imo, wish I could have met him*.


X2


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## chris.ph (Dec 29, 2011)

i can remember watching him and a couple of his mates deciding in the pub that they wanted to try and build a pit head, so the next day there they were in his garden with shovels digging it out and doing all the brickwork, it was absolutely fantastic. i really couldnt do his job i dont like heights which is why im a groundworker not a height worker lol. i did once go up in a man rider with the tower crane drivers sandwiches above the top of the second severn crossings english side support, dawn was just breaking and the view over avon was unbeiivable, all the way to bristol and cardiff and upto gloucester


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## Rigsby (Jan 3, 2012)

Strange this thread came up, I've just been watching some of his work on Youtube. I've been working on roofs last week in that strong wind, and trust me I had other types of wind going off while up there, the heights he went to were far higher than I dear to go. I have seen one of him standing on a makeshift platform on a church spire while someone takes a picture, he's not even holding on!! I would have been cr%ping myself.


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## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)

He was always a hero of mine since he first appeared on TV. Since this thread was posted, I've Googled him, looked in my copy of the book about him that was published after he died, but to no avail...I can't see the watch he wore...all I can say is that he wore a double Albert chain with a fob, but with both ends of the chain in the same pocket. Forget the film stars, politicians, royalty etc...it is blokes like Fred that put the 'Great' in Britain. :notworthy:


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## martinzx (Aug 29, 2010)

Roger the Dodger said:


> He was always a hero of mine since he first appeared on TV. Since this thread was posted, I've Googled him, looked in my copy of the book about him that was published after he died, but to no avail...I can't see the watch he wore...all I can say is that he wore a double Albert chain with a fob, but with both ends of the chain in the same pocket. Forget the film stars, politicians, royalty etc...it is blokes like Fred that put the 'Great' in Britain. :notworthy:


I must concur, I watched him on TV since the 1970's always been a fan & loved all his TV work

Ref the P/W I would guess it would be a Railway watch 

Martin


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## Rigsby (Jan 3, 2012)

Roger the Dodger said:


> He was always a hero of mine since he first appeared on TV. Since this thread was posted, I've Googled him, looked in my copy of the book about him that was published after he died, but to no avail...I can't see the watch he wore...all I can say is that he wore a double Albert chain with a fob, but with both ends of the chain in the same pocket. Forget the film stars, politicians, royalty etc...it is blokes like Fred that put the 'Great' in Britain. :notworthy:


Thank you for trying Roger.


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## Rigsby (Jan 3, 2012)

Check this one out.


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## MerlinShepherd (Sep 18, 2011)

What a great guy. I wish I'd had a chance to hang out with him.... we need to hang onto the skills of yesteryear and not let them fade away, but with technology and H&S where it is... I love the final moment. "and the other part you can let wander away to more pleasant things, like mending steam engines".


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## Rigsby (Jan 3, 2012)

Â£4500 for that job, what's it worth today? I know the last time I looked at scaffold for something of the same height it was 12k for 6 weeks + labour and materials.


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