Fred Dibnah's CCTV Monitor

[Richard_FM]

Recently I noticed on Ebay the above was offered for sale, with a starting price of 99p.

I thought it was worth a punt & put a token bid in, only to find I was the sole bidder!

It's a 1990s ESP Eyewitness (sadly not steam powered!) & after a clean up I gave it a try & after a little confusion with 2 power switches it powered up right away, though with some screen burn from the date / stamp, though it's not too noticeable.

[teetoon]

Hey, nice find Richard but I see it was collection only so you were lucky.
Amazing to see that a piece of rope used for lashing his ladders made £3.20 so you really can get money for old rope !

David.

P. S. I wish someone would take as much care to dispose of my stuff when I die.
Spose I'm not famous enough, but I did like Fred.

[Richard_FM]

Thanks.

The custodian of his house was expecting to be more interest, though he said some of the tools they were selling off would get more bids. He showed me a pair of pincers that he reckoned would go for £25. They looked just like some my Dad has, & were handed down from my Grandad when he downsized & shared his tools between my Dad & Uncle.

[teetoon]

Yes , I had a look through the completed listings and some of it got a good price.
Did you have a mooch around the workshop as offered ?

Strangely enough, it was a late friend of mine also called Richard that got me into Fred back in the 80's when he had an evening programme mostly about taking down chimneys. They don't have shows like that now with such characters unfortunately.
David.

[Richard_FM]

I had a look round and was told I could make an offer for anything else there but I couldn’t see anything, and needed to be in Stockport.

[alanworland]

A few years ago I took my Dad for 'An evening with Fred Dibnah' It was great, Fred could certainly tell a story.
Great man.

Alan

[dave walsh]

This Monitor purchase has reminded me of a number of things. Despite being in the North a few times I hadn't realised that the Dibnah property contents were being auctioned, as the owner was unable to carry on. I met the extraordinary Mr Dibnah only once but had followed all the programs over the years. He turned up to open a shop in Bolton on the Steam roller. He was covered in grime and charming everybody which I always thought was quite a thing for an otherwise rather shy and reserved individual. A friend of mine once offered me a sort of Mini Aga he was scrapping but it was too small for my use and went to HIS friend ie Fred... in the end. The Working Men's Club he's seen drinking at in one of the films is or was at Westhoughton. I used to go there with my father but we weren't Boltonian's!" In the mid nineties Bolton College hosted Poetry Readings involving people you'd have to be in London to see normally.

On my first visit I realised I'd driven past Fred's home [just a Bungalow from the front but three storeys held together with traditional iron rods and plates at the rear]. This had stopped it descending into the Ravine-a Victorian solution done pretty much single handedly when it would have otherwise been demolished! It's interesting that the Dibnah name has an epicentre in E Yorkshire [not Lancashire] but is also said to be too late for an English surname, so it's either from elsewhere... or a long lost English Village!! After his death, I was very surprised that there was so much difficulty re the building/Museum site he had put so much effort into and which remained empty for some time. This process now seems to be recurring after 8 years of occupation. The wider picture is on line. You'd imagine that the family or Local Council would have been involved but we don't really know what's gone on. It reminds me of Paul McCartney playing the "Cavern" this week. Liverpool Council actually demolished the real building to make a Car Park at the first opportunity. It was said in a fit of pique because the "lads" had dared to leave the City.


Dave

[turretslug]

Something rings a faint bell that Fred was of Ukrainian heritage, I'm sure I recall something about his belonging to a local Ukrainian ex-pat social club. There are a lot of folk in Britain with family names that have been slightly or radically altered from the original foreign rendition! A version of my family name has a concentration in Greater Manchester, apparently from Mosel valley weavers who took their skills there in the 19th century.

[Richard_FM]

I managed to see most of the programmes about Fred over the years & can remember many of the anecdotes.

[alanworland]

I first experienced Fred on a trip up North where we found him in a pottery 'slip' making well. Fred was restoring it. This was about 12ft diameter and 2 or 3 ft deep and driving the huge paddle was a vertical oak shaft, from memory at least 12 inches square, driven from a stationary steam engine
My wife spotted Fred first and we approached him for a chat whereby he admitted that he'd just drilled the huge cross hole in the shaft in the wrong place!
We had a chat, I bought one of his books which he autographed for me in his typical flamboyant handwriting!
What a character.

Alan

[dave walsh]

I must admit that I'm given to saying "Did Yer Like That?" on occasion but without a car horn or a falling chimney I've just escaped from!

Dave

[Graham G3ZVT]

Unfortunately I never got to attend one of Fred's talks.

[dave walsh]

I wonder if any were recorded They might have been if I'd known they took place "Blaster Bates" the hilarious explosives expert, would not be to a lot of peoples taste these days [or even in the sixties] but it's a non issue if the material has not preserved and his LP's are still around. When I first started spending time in Sussex there were some cultural difficulties. Things were a bit "stiff" during one meal with some decidedly "Home Counties" individuals until I mentioned Fred Dibnah, hoping to expose prejudice but they were all [to my surprise] great and genuine enthusiasts so things brightened up immediately! I switched on the TV in Bexhill one afternoon and there was Fred walking along a stretch of the Canal near Bury. I nearly caught the next train North!

Dave

[Mike Phelan]

We did go to one of Fred's talks in a theatre in Leeds, and he was just as amusing as ever.
Had also booked to see Derek (Blaster) Bates, but sadly he became ill and later died. However, I do have a couple of his LP's.
They both had that knack of recounting an everyday experience and making it very funny.

[russell_w_b]

Originally Posted by Mike Phelan

They both had that knack of recounting an everyday experience and making it very funny.

Was it 'Blaster' Bates who once made an appearance on 'Blue Peter'? He was a Special Constable as I recall too. They were about to demolish something and a demolition man was brought on set with a Beethoven exploder - pretty sure it was he. Anyway, as a kid I was fascinated by this lump of Bakelite with a crank-handle and a neon indicator that contained enough power to set off a charge, and I vowed I would one day get hold of one.

And I did! I have two! One I restored completely, rewinding the transformer and the 26A magneto and re-stuffing the main capacitor, and another 'ex-demo' exploder used in a tech college for training and in pristine condition. Their construction owes a lot to the Type 'F' field-telephone. However, I digress...

Fred Dibnah used 'traditional' methods of bringing down chimneys. Instead of explosives he would knock the base away and build a wooden structure beneath which he burned away. But you all knew that.

Fred used to visit Wetheriggs pottery near Penrith regularly. I read his book! got one of 'Blaster' Bates' LPs somewhere. Interesting characters, the pair of them, but chalk and cheese.

[60 oldjohn]

Daft but true, I remember waiting in anticipation to watch his first program I had seen advertised in the Radio Times. Come 7.30pm I think, (Yorkshire area) and there was a power cut. Can't remember if it was local or trouble at the transmitter but the same programme was broadcast a few days later. Why do I remember a daft thing like that when I have a job remembering what I had for dinner yesterday.


John.

[Phil G4SPZ]

I once went to one of Fred's talks at a local Town Hall. He walked on stage with nothing more than a fag packet-sized scrap of paper in his hand, and kept the audience howling with laughter for almost four hours. A fantastic talent.

[Richard_FM]

I was looking for compatible cameras with this monitor last night.

ESP ones are hard to find, but Lorex made ones that seem similar, especially having the same 6 pin DIN connectors, hopefully the pinouts are the same.

While I couldn't find any similar ESP monitors for sale, someone is selling what seems to be NOS Lorex monitors with 2 cameras:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lorex-SG1...a4ed%7Ciid%3A1

Looking around these seem to share some background with the ESP ones, & are useful if you want a nearly new 14" monochrome CRT screen without the hassle of ordering one off Alibaba.

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by dave walsh

I must admit that I'm given to saying "Did Yer Like That?" on occasion but without a car horn or a falling chimney I've just escaped from

Me too Dave, many times I have been heard to utter those famous words following some kind of minor catastrophe. Sadly, they were lost on most people - quod non intellegunt! Where's the culture in the world?!

[dave walsh]

They know nothing and are proud of it Steve-the opposite of Mr Fred. I sweated it out in the Bexhill Record shop today viewing a live performance but didn't shout the catch phrase. If you've a Northern accent down here you can be mistaken for someone whose East European or [even worse] from Yorkshire

I nipped into a cool [temp wise] Charity Shop on the way home and immediately spotted a Dibnah DVD-a good afternoon overall!

Dave