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.

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.

We first went to Beamish in 2000 for Fred Dibnah’s Magnificent Monuments, then followed shortly afterwards for Fred Dibnah’s Victorian Heroes, Fred Dibnah’s Age of Steam and finally for Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steel and Stone.  (All of which are available from our shop: http://theviewfromthenorth.co.uk/shop/.)

This half term Beamish are commemorating the 1890 Silksworth Colliery Strike and subsequent evacuations of the workers and their families by owner Lord Londonderry.  You can get involved in reenactments and soak up the community spirit as the Pit Village, Colliery, Town and Tramway come together to remember those evicted miners.

The Silksworth community protested and aside from one incident dubbed ‘Charge of the Cops Brigade’ it was a peaceful – if not rather noisy protest.  Which seems amazing by today’s standards to say whole families were being turfed out of their homes!

There’s loads of stuff going on as part of the anniversary commemorations including reenactments of the evictions, Rosette making to show your support to the miners, the Printer producing flyers and posters, the fantastic Beamish trams and a special exhibition by 2 Silksworth Heritage groups documenting the mining history of the area.  And if that’ not enough as an extra bonus it’s half price entry for the whole of the half term week!  Can’t say fairer than that.   For more details see the Beamish website at http://www.beamish.org.uk/

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!

Phil is a proud Lancastrian, born in Bury and brought up with huge crumbling Victorian mills and factories surrounding him as his playground.  By the age of nine, Phil was rather an independent young man and loved nothing more than wandering around Bury’s dying industrial heritage sketching and painting all that he could see.

Around this time he met a local garage owner called Mr Haslewood.  Mesmerized by the sight of a green painted steam engine he’d  spied inside the garage, Phil asked if he could polish it.  Mr Haslewood gladly obliged, delighted that a lad so young was interested in the engine.

Later that day another green steam engine came chuffing into the yard.  A small muscular chap with an oil soaked cap jumped off the engine and greeted Mr Haslewood, who in turn told him that it was young Phil who’d polished up the engine so beautifully.  “Eh up cock yer doin’ a reet good job on John’s engine.  When you’ve done maybe you’ll polish mine, which is also an Aveling, but a steam roller”  This was Phil’s first introduction to Bolton Steeplejack Fred Dibnah.

Phil now lives in Fred’s home town of  Bolton, but is still immensely proud of his Bury roots.  He has become increasingly saddened about the loss of Bury’s industry and heritage but it has inspired him to recapture those historic millscapes in his paintings.  I am sure you’ll agree he’s done a great job.

The painting shown is from a moment during our filming in London May 2004 for Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain, when Fred went down to collect his MBE from the Queen.  The DVD with this London footage can be purchased from our shop and don’t forget there’s a free Dibnah gift with every purchase.

Nowardays Alan is an enthusiastic researcher, writer and photographer of industrial history and with his wife Christine owns Sledgehammer Engineering Press. Industrial history has always fascinated him and When he was just 14 years old, Alan researched and produced a small booklet titled, ‘THE HOPWOOD COLLIERY WAGGONWAY’. Regrettably it has been out of print for over 40 years. His 1998 book ‘CHRONICLES OF A LANCASTRIAN BOILERMAKER’, is an autobiography relating his passionate story of how, after serving an apprenticeship as a boilermaker, he became Managing Director and Chief Engineer of nationally renowned industrial and heritage boiler engineers, H.A. McEWEN (BOILER REPAIRS) LIMITED, the family firm that he had founded in 1968.

Alan has also written numerous articles for magazines and books about British Industrial Heritage; he has been a member of the Newcomen Society for over 25 years and the Northern Mill Engine Society for around 20 years. Between January and August 2008 Alan researched and wrote ‘FRED DIBNAH’S CHIMNEY DROPS’ which was published by Sledgehammer in October 2008 and is available from www.sledgehammerengineeringpress.co.uk

If you want to see Alan in action he features in our BBC programmes Fred Dibnah’s Industrial Age ep 2 and Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steel and Stone eps 1, 2, 10 & 12 all available from our shop            www.theviewfromthenorth.co.uk

And remember there’s a  free Dibnah gift with every purchase.  Available exclusively from the makers of the BBC programmes.

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.

The lovely people running the museum have been in touch to let me know about new happenings at the museum:

The Grand Entrance Hall of the Brunels’ Thames Tunnel can now be visited every Tuesday evening and Sunday morning.

The Grand Entrance Hall is a huge underground chamber which was originally constructed in 1825 as the access shaft for works on the celebrated Thames Tunnel. Twice a week Brunel Museum representatives lead a walking tour through Rotherhithe, which finishes with a descent into the shaft and the telling of the fascinating story of this landmark engineering achievement. More details can be found at www.brunel-museum.org.uk

You can buy the Fred Dibnah’s Victorian Heroes DVD with 2 hours DVD extras direct from us at www.theviewfromthenorth.co.uk/shop.  Don’t forget if you buy from us you get a free Dibnah gift with every purchase!  Not available anywhere else.

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.

Due to years of neglect, superficial repairs and multiple strikes the cast iron fascia panels were in a poor state. Furthermore, a lack of provision for articulation of fascia supports to accommodate thermal movements and the inherent casting and manufacturing defects in cast iron resulted in crack propagation. For this reason the key requirement of the project was to maximise the safety of river users, whilst maintaining the historic and architectural significance of the bridge.

Being a protected Heritage structure (Grade II listed) all work had to be approved by local planning authorities with input from English Heritage. All replacement materials were to be similar to the existing where possible. For this reason Spheroidal Graphite Iron was chosen to complete the project. However, for this project, the British Standard grade BS1563 Grade 400/18 was used to give the bridge greater strength and tensile ability. The highest standards of metallurgy had to be adhered to at all times to ensure the replacement fascia panels met this requirement.

For each panel a pattern was hand crafted by the patternshop using timber and plastic formers. Each pattern was typically used twice, on either side of the bridge, and a total of 190 different patterns were used to complete the project. The decorative details such as the radii on the cross section profiles are different for each length of the span; these details were recreated using plastic formers that could be re-shaped as required. Allowances had to be made to counteract the contraction and expansion caused by thermal movements.

Once the patterns had been made the actual casting of the panels had to take place. Given the size and the complexity of the work there was little room for any error. Following on from the casting of the panel they were all shop fitted, drilled and tapped by so that the water based fitting in Westminster went without a hitch.

In total over 500 metres of castings were produced with a total weight of just over 99.5 tonnes. For their work on Westminster Bridge they were honoured to be awarded a Heritage Award for Infrastructure. The Structural Awards are the UK ’s pre-eminent award for engineering excellence.

You can see extended footage of Fred visiting Ballantine Iron Co in the collectors edition of Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain episode 4 CASTINGS. Available exclusively from The View from the North’s shop. Plus there’s a free Dibnah gift with every purchase. Three free signed Dibnah postcards.

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

At Bancroft we remember Fred Dibnah with much affection – approaching reverence even. Whilst he was working on the Bancroft Mill chimney he often took his bottom ladder down and went off to sample the delights of a local pub’s lunchtime menu. From down in the town one day he was told that he could see that one of our older members had replaced the ladder and was, in casual mode, walking round the chimney crown with his camera round his neck and his hands in his pockets. History does not mention what, if anything, was said when he returned but there are photographs………..

That member has near-cult status at Bancroft.

Its a great tribute to Fred’s work that the protection that he gave the chimney in pointing and oiling 13 years ago has only recently shown the need for renewal and the work is under way in 2011. We have steamed an average of 27 days a year over those 13 years and the elevated site doesn’t give the chimney an easy time! He did a great job.

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.

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…