Fred Dibnah's Age Of Steam

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However, the strain of living with a man so dedicated to his hobbies began to take its toll on his wife: Anon (1996) The Fred Dibnah Story [Online Film] Available at: < https://youtu.be/wffv8YeoeeM> [Accessed 28th April 2021]. Fred Dibnah Heritage Centre items sold at auction", BBC News, 18 March 2018 , retrieved 18 March 2018 Anon (2013) Fred Dibnah’s Steam Roller, Betsy. The Bolton News. [Online] Available at: < https://images.app.goo.gl/JojzvZmfmwHwFyHCA> [Accessed 28 th April 2021]. 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.

Dibnah died from bladder cancer in November 2004, aged 66. [2] Early life [ edit ] Childhood [ edit ] a b c "Fred Dibnah", The Times, London, 8 November 2004, archived from the original on 4 June 2011 , retrieved 18 October 2009 Graduation Summer 2000", RGU News Article, Robert Gordon University, 3 August 2000, archived from the original on 27 September 2007 , retrieved 20 October 2009a b "Fred's steam monster barred for his big day", Manchester Evening News, 8 July 2004 , retrieved 30 October 2009 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 ] Dibnah was praised by many notable British people. After reporting on his death, television presenter Peter Sissons remarked: "They don't make them like that any more". Comedian Peter Kay said: "It's very sad news. He was one of a kind and now he has gone I think there will be no one else like him. He was enthusiastic about a way of life that has virtually disappeared now." Brian Tetlow, chairman of the Bolton and District Civic Trust, said: "He's unique, not just to Bolton but to Britain and the world. Our thoughts are with his wife and children." [103] 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] But, unable to find a buyer, Mr Powsney remained there until 2018 when he decided to close the centre and sell off Fred's machinery.

Dibnah was the Castaway on Desert Island Discs on 1 December 1991. [96] Death [ edit ] Dibnah's coffin being drawn along the streets of Bolton Fred Dibnah's grave in Tonge Cemetery 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." 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 A play titled The Demolition Man, based on his final years, was staged in 2011 at Bolton's Octagon Theatre. [107] An 8-foot (2.4m) bronze statue of Dibnah was unveiled by the Mayor of Bolton, in Bolton town centre, on 29April 2008. The sculpture was created by Jane Robbins. [104] His home was converted into a heritage centre in 2010 [105] but its contents were sold at auction in March 2018. [106]First marriage [ edit ] Dibnah's home, 121 Radcliffe Road, a former Victorian gatehouse in Bolton. Now the (closed) Fred Dibnah Heritage Centre

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: 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 BoltoniansFRED 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. Television Nominations 1979", Past Winners and Nominees, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, 1979, archived from the original on 15 January 2009 , retrieved 19 October 2009 Dibnah met his second wife Susan Lorenz—a 28-year-old social worker [3]—at a steam rally in Cheshire. In The Fred Dibnah Story (1996) she recalled their first meeting: "He looked sad and miserable, quite a pathetic sort of figure really, none of the bounce that people knew him for." [63] [ full citation needed] He later invited her to a chimney felling in Oldham and then a talk he had been invited to give to a group of fans in Halifax, known as The Fred Dibnah Appreciation Society. Sue moved into Dibnah's home in Bolton and the two married on 27February 1987. [3] She encouraged him to grow a moustache and also to give up smoking. [63] 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