Fred Dibnah's Age Of Steam

FRED 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. 
Fred’s love for all things steam is also a practical one; for the last 27years, he has been renovating a steam boiler and engine in his back garden and it is now nearly complete. As Fred grew up, despite parental disapproval, he pursued his first goal of becoming a steeplejack, and it was his outstanding skill in his chosen profession that led to his first appearance on television. 
DAVID HALL, once a journalist and teacher, has been producer for over 25years, making programmes for the BBC, ITV Network, Channel 4 and other broadcasters around the world. He worked with Fred since 1998 on Industrial Age, Buildings of Britain and Age if Steam. His latest work includes a documentary on Fred’s garden and Founders of the Great Dynasties for History Channel International. He enjoys travel, fell-walking and watching Manchester United whom he has followed since the 1950s.

Britains favourite steeplejack and industrial enthusiastic, the late Fred Dibnah, takes us back to the 18th century when the invention of the steam engine gave an enormous impetus to the development of machinery of all types. He reveals how the steam engine provided the first practical means of generating power from heat to augment the old sources of power (from muscle, wind and water) and provided the main source of power for the Industrial Revolution.    In Fred Dibnahs Age of Steam Fred shares his passion for steam and meets some of the characters who devote their lives to finding, preserving and restoring steam locomotives, traction engines and stationary engines, mill workings and pumps. Combined with this will be the stories of central figures of the time, including James Watts -  inventor of the steam engine - and Richard Trevithick who played a key role in the expansion of industrial Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Fred Dibnah

David Hall

Memories of Industrial Britain

Join engineer, steeplejack and beloved storyteller Fred Dibnah, as he takes you on a personal tour through industrial Britain. 
 
Bringing to life landmark events from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century in his typically engaging and anecdotal style, Fred introduces the great inventors from the age of steam, describes the day-to-day operation of railways, mills, forges and factories, and paints a vivid picture of what life was like for the mill-hands, colliers and engineers who laboured in industrial Britain - the workshop of the world. 
 
With a comprehensive gazetteer, which lists details of over 230 places of industrial interest - from steam railways and ships, to windmills and watermills - Foundries and Rolling Mills is a glorious portrait of Britain at the height of its industrial power, from one of our most revered figures.

Fred Dibnah

Books by Fred Dibnah

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