History Creator / FredDibnah

* BusmansHoliday: his first divorce was prompted when, after much pleading from his then wife, he reluctantly booked a seaside holiday in Blackpool. When they arrived there, he told her to take the kids to the beach and then he went off to do a demolition and a couple of steeplejacking jobs in the town. His wife was not happy.

* {{Homage}}: Fred was written whole and entire into Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Discworld/RaisingSteam'' as steam-engineer Dick Simnel.

* OldMaster: Of his profession and trade, undeniably. Fred was climbing chimney hundreds of feet tall well into his fifties.

* [[EccentricTownsfolk Eccentric Townsperson]]: Fred was loved by the people of Bolton, but at the back of their minds he was one of these.

* [[DyingTown Rust Belt]]: The North of England - including Bolton - pretty much became this in the 1980's. Fred was aware of this and was bittersweet about his livelihood being at the expense of others.

Fred Dibnah (28 April 1938 – 6 November 2004) was born in [[OopNorth Bolton, Lancashire]] and established a career as an industrial steeplejack and demolitions expert. After a local BBC station made a documentary following him working on the iconic roof and tower of Bolton Town Hall, the BBC realised it had a rough diamond in the making and followed his life and work. This made for visually exciting television, and made the wryly funny Northerner into something of a national celebrity. Dibnah's philosophical asides on life tended to be delivered, in a distinctive Bolton accent, from several hundred feet up the side of a factory chimney or other normally inaccessible architectural feature. Whilst primarily employed to maintain large structures, as the decades turned into the 1980's, Dibnah's job became more one of demolition. Employing low-tech methods for bringing down chimneys and eschewing the use of explosives, his spectacular demolitions also made for enthralling television. Dibnah was aware that his livelihood now depended on the [[MargaretThatcher arguably un-necessary demise of British heavy industry]], and could get thoughtful and sad about this.

* TakeThat: After the Miners' Strike and the [[MargaretThatcher destruction of the British coal industry]], Fred very pointedly began constructing a replica pit-head and a representative mine-shaft to commemorate all that was passing away. A BBC series documented his struggles to get planning permission. An accident whilst building this contributed to his early death.

* NeedsMoreLove

* {{Homage}}: Fred was written whole and entire into Creator/TerryPratchett's ''RaisingSteam'' as steam-engineer Dick Simnel.

* TakeThat: After the Miners' Strike and the destruction of the British coal industry, Fred very pointedly began constructing a replica pit-head and a representative mine-shaft to commemorate all that was passing away. A BBC series documented his struggles to get planning permission. An accident whilst building this contributed to his early death.

* {{Homage}}: Fred was written whole and entire into TerryPratchett's ''RaisingSteam'' as steam-engineer Dick Simnel.

* EccentricTownsfolk: Fred was loved by the people of Bolton, but at the back of their minds he was one of these.

Fred Dibnah (28 April 1938 – 6 November 2004)was born in [[OopNorth Bolton, Lancashire]] and established a career as an industrial steeplejack and demolitions expert. After a local BBC station made a documentary following him working on the iconic roof and tower of Bolton Town Hall, the BBC realised it had a rough diamond in the making and followed his life and work. This made for visually exciting television, and made the wryly funny Northerner into something of a national celebrity. Dibnah's philosophical asides on life tended to be delivered, in a distinctive Bolton accent, from several hundred feet up the side of a factory chimney or other normally inaccessible architectural feature. Whilst primarily employed to maintain large structures, as the decades turned into the 1980's, Dibnah's job became more one of demolition. Employing low-tech methods for bringing down chimneys and eschewing the use of explosives, his spectacular demolitions also made for enthralling television. Dibnah was aware that his livelihood now depended on the [[MargaretThatcher arguably un-necessary demise of British heavy industry]], and could get thoughtful and sad about this.

* [[DyingTown Rust Belt]]: The North of England - including Bolton - pretty much became this in the 1980's. Fred was aware of this and was bitterswwet about his livelihood being at the expense of others.
* TakeThat: After the Miners' Strike and the destruction of the British coal industry, Fred very pointedly began constructing a replica pit-head and a representative mine-shaft to commemorate all that was passing away. A BBC series documented his struggles to get planning permission. An accident whilst building this contributed to his early death.

* OopNorth: The distinctive Bolton accent and most of the locations

==TV Documentaries and Series'==