One Brick at a Time

The famous Fred Dibnah at work.

I discovered him some time ago on youtube, filled in a lot of idle time watching him at work, very interesting and entertaining

Paul

Is that £7000 an hour, that job will finish just in time for him to retire at 80

Mairjimmy
Sadly Fred is long gone.
Lots of YouTube available.
Another one worth watching from that era is Blaster Bates.
True- look him up
Cheers

I also discovered Fred a few years ago. He deserves to be much better known than he is. Without the internet he would not be known outside Britain at all.
He must have been absolutely fearless. He often had to put the ladders up himself, when he got to the top of one wooden ladder, he pushed another one up the chimney, tying it to the one he was standing on. He then climbed that and tied it to the brickwork. His Wife left him because apart from raising a large family, he expected her to work as hard as he did and have each ladder ready for him to take up the one he was on. She also could not cope with the fact that he was always in danger of falling and killing himself. He retired because the cost of insurance, probably Public Liability insurance, because I doubt he insured himself, rose so much as to made the work uneconomic. In retirement, he devoted himself to restoring his beloved steam traction engines. Some time after his death, a group of enthusiasts raised money to put a nice headstone on his grave. They also made a museum of his collection, called I think, "The Fred Dibnah Memorial Village"

Here is how he laddered a chimney.



Part 2

Thanks for posting this Lang ended up a late night last night got on utube and watched a few of his videos
Heights have never worry me hung off the top of sixty foot windmills with twenty five foot wheels never gave it a secret thought but watching him putting those ladders up and scaling up and down and up over the scaffolding was enough to make me hook a safety harnes to the kitchen chair
Great stuff

Bluey

I'm Now curious as to how they Built those Chimneys ..??

Hayseed trying to find some details but most of the big ones were built in the 1800's going right back to Napoleonic times. I might be able to find some more recent footage of similar chimneys in India.

lang

Gutsy cameraman


Don't watch this if you get vertigo.



The modern way knowing full well the helicopter will just cut the line if he gets caught up leaving everything to crash down on the workers.
Also remember they are working in a 150mph wind from the downwash.

Every foot of chimney increased the effeciency and power of your boiler ,so it was a balance between cost of chimney and savings in coal over so many years..