Although not a man of steam, Charles Dickens  was certainly a man of great talent and lived through the early part of Fred Dibnah’s favourite time – The Victorian Age.

To celebrate the 200 year anniversary of Charles Dickens birth, Gerald Dickens – Charles’ great great grandson will be performing the premiere of a brand new show entitled “The Complete Works of Charles Dickens” at The Historic Dockyard Chatham.  This new show has been specially written for the bicentenary of Dickens’ birth and features extracts from all his major novels in chronological order.

We’re familiar with Chatham as we filmed at The Historic Dockyard with Fred for our BBC2 series back in 2000 called Fred Dibnah’s Magnificent Monuments.  The Dockyard is also somewhere that Charles Dickens himself was very familiar with as his Father was a clerk in the Navy pay office.

Gerald Dickens said of this special event “It is so exciting to perform in Chatham in this bicentenary year.  Charles spent some of the happiest days of his childhood in and around the Dockyard and it was here that so many of his characters and plots were born.  I can think of no better place to celebrate his life and career”

Tickets are priced £15 and can be purchased by calling The Historic Dockyard on 01634 823815.  The price also includes a Q&A session to be held afterwards in Commissioner’s House, Britain’s oldest Naval building still intact.

Beamish is one of our most filmed at locations with Fred Dibnah.  It’s a great place for a family day out where you can have fun whilst learning about our industrial, agricultural and social history.  Each area of the musuem tells the story of Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian living.  You can see how life in the North East changed over a 100 years from a Georgian agricultural lifestyle to the hustle and bustle of the Industrial Revolution.

We were always shown great hospitality on our filming visits, in particular from Jacki Winstanley in the setting up of the filming.  It was great to be able to turn up at the location and know that we were going to be able to shoot some great stuff.  Fred loved the place because it felt real and all the people working there really knew what they were talking about.  On site nothing was too much trouble for the team -  many of whom are volunteers.

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I came across a lovely site the other day with some great industrial heritage paintings from around Lancashire.

The site http://www.industrialinspirations.co.uk/ is owned by Phil Frain and was created by his wife Denise.  There are paintings and prints available to buy and as you can see there are even some featuring Mr Dibnah himself!

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Alan McEwen was a truly great friend to Fred Dibnah over the years. They shared many interests and Alan always had time to advise Fred on his latest boiler complications. They were both passionate about steam and industrial history preservation – in fact up until 2007 Alan’s job as well as his passion was that of preserving our industrial heritage as he was a highly talented boiler maker.

Nowardays Alan is an enthusiastic researcher, writer and photographer of industrial history and with his wife Christine owns Sledgehammer Engineering Press. Continue reading →

The Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe stands on the site of the Thames tunnel.  We visited the museum with Fred Dibnah in October 2000 for Fred Dibnah’s Victorian Heroes.  A specially commissioned 1 hour special as part of the BBC Victorian Season.

The museum is housed in Marc Brunel’s original Engine house.  The Thames tunnel construction is unique as it was the only project worked on by both of the genius Brunel family.  Father Marc started the work then son (and Fred’s hero) Isambard took over.

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During our 2004 BBC series Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain we visited Ballantine Iron Co in Bo’ness. It’s an absolutely fantastic place and not one that the public would usually get to see inside. Fred and Alf loved it and really enjoyed being shown round by the knowledgeable and very welcoming buyer Jim Brooks. Ballentine Iron Co have recently completed an award winning heritage project at Westminster Bridge.

Ballantine Bo’ness Iron Co were awarded the contract for the full replacement of all the fascia panels on the historic Westminster Bridge . Westminster Bridge was opened in 1862 and is a seven span, 250 metre long structure spanning the landmark site between the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament. Each span is made up out of cast iron arched ribs ranging from 29 – 37 metres in length. Continue reading →

Looking back at the old production files I see that amazingly it’s nearly 13 years since we filmed with Fred Dibnah at Bancroft Mill in Barnoldswick.  It was way back in early November 1998 when we were filming our first series for the BBC – Fred Dibnah’s Industrial Age.

I spoke to Harry Moore of the Bancroft Mill Engine Trust recently and he provided me with the following memories of Fred:

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The new site is now live, so thanks very much to Andy at Addcreative for all his hard work.

I’m currently in the process of getting in touch with all the sites that we filmed at with Fred Dibnah over the years so I can update you all with their latest news.

Fred had a whale of a time making the programmes over the years.  He always used to say to people “It’s like being on holiday this, but the BBC are paying for it all”!  He was so passionate about the work being done by volunteers, skilled labourers and restoration experts around the country we feel it’s only right to keep you up to date with how their projects are going on.

It may take me a bit of time so please bear with me but I should be in touch with all the sites over the next few months.  In the mean time – if we filmed with you please do not hesitate to get in touch and send your news to:  dibnah_blog@yahoo.co.uk

We’re selling the DVDs of the programmes we made with Fred along with many unseen collectors editions and limited edition postcards in our shop so please do take a look at www.theviewfromthenorth.co.uk

Plus there’s an exclusive free Dibnah gift with every purchase.

The View from the North is the producer of Fred Dibnah’s BBC programmes.  Not only can you buy all our television programmes from this site but also exclusive Dibnah collections and collector’s editions.  Plus this is the only site that gives you a free Fred Dibnah gift with every purchase.

Over the coming months I will not only update you with all our latest releases, competitions and free gifts, but also news from all the sites that we filmed at with Fred at over the years.  If you enjoyed our Fred programmes then I’m sure you’ll be interested in keeping up to date with what’s going on at the sites he loved visiting.

We’ll bring you news from industrial museums, preserved railways, mining museums, country houses, castles, cathedrals and much more…