I was slightly nervous shaking hands with the Queen. She asked me if I was still climbing chimneys. It beats me how she keeps tabs on everybody. I never thought I would be receiving an MBE. Dibnah was the Castaway on Desert Island Discs on 1 December 1991. [96] Death [ edit ] Dibnah's coffin being drawn along the streets of Bolton Fred Dibnah's grave in Tonge Cemetery But, unable to find a buyer, Mr Powsney remained there until 2018 when he decided to close the centre and sell off Fred's machinery. An 8-foot (2.4m) bronze statue of Dibnah was unveiled by the Mayor of Bolton, in Bolton town centre, on 29April 2008. The sculpture was created by Jane Robbins. [104] His home was converted into a heritage centre in 2010 [105] but its contents were sold at auction in March 2018. [106] Sometimes he'll have busted his thumb because he's hit it with a hammer; you couldn't really expect him then to come in and start doing things in the house. I just don't think it's fair though, I think you've got to strike a balance and I think ours is about 90/10. Me for 90 per cent of the housework and Fred for 10." [68]

Graduation Summer 2000", RGU News Article, Robert Gordon University, 3 August 2000, archived from the original on 27 September 2007 , retrieved 20 October 2009 Television Nominations 1979", Past Winners and Nominees, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, 1979, archived from the original on 15 January 2009 , retrieved 19 October 2009 One day in October 1985, Dibnah attended a solid fuel exhibition in nearby Bury. Upon his return he discovered that Alison had left the house, taking with her their three children, the dog and some items of furniture. [61] Short of money, he was forced to sell his antique AJS motorcycle. [60] He found life without his family difficult but defended his wife: "There is no doubt whatsoever, she were a good help to me and I'm going to miss her. It was just that all the pressure got too much for her." [62] Second marriage [ edit ] Dibnah in 1981 Town says farewell to Fred Dibnah". Bolton Evening News. 8 November 2004. Archived from the original on 23 June 2012 . Retrieved 3 June 2013– via freddibnah.co.uk. However, the strain of living with a man so dedicated to his hobbies began to take its toll on his wife:In 1967, following disagreements over who should be invited to their wedding, Dibnah and 19-year-old hairdresser Alison Mary Foster eloped to Gretna Green, to get married. [3] [27] Dibnah had first spotted Alison from the top of a chimney and, when one day she walked into the pub where he was drinking, he asked her out; six weeks later, the two became engaged. [28] They left notes for their parents, caught a train to Carlisle and from there on a series of buses to Dumfries. They had initially planned to stay at the house of a friend but as he had returned to Bolton for his holidays, they stayed instead at a local farmhouse. The two had to be resident for at least 21days to be married and so Dibnah agreed to point the gable ends of a local hotel in exchange for bed and board.

Eleven days later, thousands of mourners watched as Dibnah's coffin (on top of which his trademark flat cap was placed) was towed through the centre of Bolton by his restored traction engine, driven by his son. A cortège of steam-powered vehicles followed, as the procession made its way to Bolton Parish Church. During the hour-long service, David Hall told the congregation "He wasn't a posh TV presenter. He was recognised as a working man who had learned through experience." [99] Following the service, led by the Vicar of Bolton, Canon Michael Williams (a friend of Dibnah), he was buried at Tonge Cemetery, behind his home. [100] Steam engines were his great passion, so much so that they put paid to his first marriage. His wife, Alison, left him in 1985, taking their three daughters with her and complaining: "He is married to his engines." Attempts to sell the landmark property since have also proved unsuccessful. Read More Related Articles And so it proved. Haworth's documentary about Dibnah won two awards and led to a host of other programmes over the next 25 years. A play titled The Demolition Man, based on his final years, was staged in 2011 at Bolton's Octagon Theatre. [107]Dibnah died from bladder cancer in November 2004, aged 66. [2] Early life [ edit ] Childhood [ edit ] Anon (2007) Fred Dibnah’s house, Radcliffe Road, Bolton. The Bolton News. [Online] Available at: < https://images.app.goo.gl/UfuL7Q2cLDr7ZwUF6> [Accessed 28 th April 2021]. Dibnah was praised by many notable British people. After reporting on his death, television presenter Peter Sissons remarked: "They don't make them like that any more". Comedian Peter Kay said: "It's very sad news. He was one of a kind and now he has gone I think there will be no one else like him. He was enthusiastic about a way of life that has virtually disappeared now." Brian Tetlow, chairman of the Bolton and District Civic Trust, said: "He's unique, not just to Bolton but to Britain and the world. Our thoughts are with his wife and children." [103]

Dibnah met his second wife Susan Lorenz—a 28-year-old social worker [3]—at a steam rally in Cheshire. In The Fred Dibnah Story (1996) she recalled their first meeting: "He looked sad and miserable, quite a pathetic sort of figure really, none of the bounce that people knew him for." [63] [ full citation needed] He later invited her to a chimney felling in Oldham and then a talk he had been invited to give to a group of fans in Halifax, known as The Fred Dibnah Appreciation Society. Sue moved into Dibnah's home in Bolton and the two married on 27February 1987. [3] She encouraged him to grow a moustache and also to give up smoking. [63] Anon (1996) The Fred Dibnah Story [Online Film] Available at: < https://youtu.be/wffv8YeoeeM> [Accessed 28th April 2021]. Television | Documentary in 1980", Awards Database, British Academy of Film and Television Arts , retrieved 2 May 2019The following year, he met Sue, 20 years his junior, whom he met at a steam-engine rally. They married in 1987, only to divorce in 1996. In 1998, Fred Dibnah married his third wife, Sheila. Anon (2013) Fred Dibnah’s Steam Roller, Betsy. The Bolton News. [Online] Available at: < https://images.app.goo.gl/JojzvZmfmwHwFyHCA> [Accessed 28 th April 2021]. 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.