Eleven tons moving at about ten miles an hour doesn’t stop in a hurry. ibid.
Today fewer than five hundred people work in the quarrying and mining industries combined. ibid.
The Lake District isn’t really an area most people associate with our industrial past and heavy industry. Once upon a time round Workington and Barrow in Furnace there were great industrial centres and they mined iron ore in the hundreds of tons, and it were some of the best iron ore in all of England. You know. Alas, it’s all gone. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain e3: The Source of Iron
All the ore mined at the Florence mine came here to the Workington steel works where is were converted by Bessemer converters into steel to manufacture railway lines. ibid.
We’re now in Falkirk which of course was the place where the industrial revolution in Scotland all started. And here there is a great iron foundry called the Carron Iron Works that were opened in 1760. After thirty years it employed a thousand men and became the biggest iron smelting plant in the whole of Europe. Fred Dinah’s Made in Britain e4: Castings
In 1950 there were more than two-hundred foundries like this in central Scotland. Now this is one of the only ones left. ibid.
I’m on my way to Sunderland to look at a great pumping station that was built to cater for the ever increasing demand for more water. With the invention of the steam engine far more water was needed than ever before to run the engines and equip Britain’s industries. This is Ryhope Pumping Station. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain e5: Water and Boilers
Boiler-making were one of Britain’s most important industries. They even had their own boiler-makers’ union. ibid.
A hundred years ago when Fred’s engine was built there were over five thousand forges like this all over Britain. Now there are no more than a hundred. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain e6: The Road to Steel City
It’s a museum that tells the story of early steel making here in Sheffield – Abbeydale industrial hamlet. ibid.
Fred Dibnah is now halfway through his tour of Britain in search of the things that went into building a traction engine like his. His is still in Yorkshire and is on his way to the Bolton rivet manufacturing company where they made the rivets he used when rebuilding the engine. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain e7: Mechanics and Riveters
Now it’s Fred’s turn to drive the [train] engine. Something he always dreamt about as a lad. ibid.
48,078. It’s capable of doing fifty miles on one fill-up. ibid.
Once rivets were crucial and they held together everything from things like my boiler to the Forth Bridge. ibid.
Most people think that the great age of steam is dead. But this whole nursery is actually powered by steam. Not only does it keep the water boiling in the pipes but it generates all the electricity. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain e8: Pattern Making
And going down the road to see Mr David Ragsdale who is the owner of six traction engines. And the main reason we’re going is he’s a master at the art of pattern making. ibid.
It’s amazing how many different makers there were of these things [steam engines]. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain e9: Engines at Work
Chains made in the Black Country were renowned for their quality all over the world. At the end of the nineteenth century 90% of all the chain workshops in England and Wales were here in the black country. ibid.
Our engine is actually steered by chains. We’ve come here to the Black Country Museum to see a gentleman making chains in exactly the same way as this chain would have been made in 1912, without any fancy electric welding or anything like that. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain e10: Chains and Copper
Now that the engine’s been running it’ll do 15 miles per hour with ease. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain e11: The Engineering Workshop
At its height Wales was producing nearly half a million tons of slate a year. ibid.
One of the problems that steam enthusiasts have is that it’s difficult to get the right nuts and bolts for their engines. ibid.
In the great days of steam railways there were like two routes up England – one up the West Coast and one up the East Coast. In 1893 the Great Central built one up the middle. Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain s1e12: A Lifetime’s Achivement
Fred Dibnah will always be remembered for his passions for steeplejacking and steam. And for his love for the industrial landscape that surrounded him when he was growing up in Bolton in the 1940s. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steel and Stone e1: The Industrial Landscape, BBC 2006
In the 60 years since then our urban and industrial landscape has changed dramatically as whole industries have disappeared. ibid.
‘Fred had a talent for making that [industrial history] very interesting for people.’ ibid. lecturer
‘Their lives were totally ruled by the noise of the gearing and the engine ... It’s unbelievable violent ... When all these [looms] machines were running the decibels must have been unbelievable.’ ibid. Fred
‘I’m really more interested in the mechanics of it all.’ ibid. Fred
Ironbridge: This is the world’s first cast-iron bridge. Iron was so important round here that this place was regarded as the beginning or the cradle of the industrial revolution. It wasn’t just bridges they made here. ibid.
‘Up until the 1850s they only really cast-iron, you know. And they really needed something a bit tougher. And along came Henry Bessemer in 1855 and he invented this thing – a giant eggcup.’ ibid. Fred
‘This has got to be the biggest winding engine left in the world. And it were made about 1905 and it kept on running until the 1970s. And I’m now going to do a demonsteration [sic] of how fast you can put it in reverse from full steam forwards to backwards. And here we go. Did you like that? I did.’ ibid.
Fred’s garden is unique. It was all assembled from scrap and the cast-offs from old mills and factories. But it is probably the finest working example of a steam-powered engineering workshop in the country. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steel and Stone e2: Back Street Mechanic
‘I’m a backstreet mechanic.’ ibid. Fred
‘Steam was the big driver in his life.’ ibid. mechanical engineer
‘Fred could turn his hands and do it.’ ibid. admirer
‘We’re breeding a nation of men who are not what they used to be.’ ibid. Fred
Between 1710 and 1712 Thomas Newcomen invented a brand new type of steam-engine – the atmospheric engine which was designed solely for one purpose – to pump water from deep mine shafts. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steel and Stone e3: The Machines That Changed the World
Trevithick’s use of strong steam meant that you could build an engine that weighed about ten tons that would do the same work as an engine that weighed six hundred and fifty tons. ibid.
Steam was only introduced really to help out the waterwheel. ibid.
James Watt ... separated the condensing department from the cylinder. ibid.
Robert Stephenson and his company of course didn’t just build locomotives, they built the lines and the bridges and all the engineering works. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steel and Stone e4: Men of Steel
By 1847 Armstrong had given up practising law; he opened his Elswick works on the banks of the River Tyne where he manufactured hydraulics and all sorts of other engineering equipment. ibid.
By 1867 the Armstrong company had begun to build iron warships, and in the first fifteen years they built twenty. ibid.
The greatest armament supplier of the time. ibid.
By the 1890s the manufacture of arms and battleships had become one of our major industries. ibid.
The magnificent town hall like this one here in Bolton is a grand example of Victorian civic pride … It really was the great age of Victorian splendour. Fred Dibnah’s World of Steam, Steel and Stone e5: The Victorian Gentleman
The Victorians went to great lengths to make things very beautiful as well as functional. ibid.
Pugin called St Giles his gem. ibid.