This footage from 1979 shows how much Health and Safety culture has changed in less than a generation. Not a safety harness or carabiner in sight – just ladders, ropes, knots, and a 300ft drop.
Dibnah is hard to beat for sheer hands-on competence – the last video has some of the story of how he acquired it.
We’re not making many (any?) Dibnahs these days.
More steeplejacking with Dibnah:
And the complete first episode of the 1979 series here:
See also:
Little By Little 1: Raymond Briggs on 1940s Britain
Little By Little 2: Li Kunwa on indoor plumbing in 1980s China
Little By Little 3: Scarcity and Subsistence in rural Suffolk in the 1900s
Little By Little 4: Dolly Parton on the scar on her toes (rural poverty in 1950s Tennessee)
Not long ago; or, Little by little (5): Tyler Cowen on progress in living standards since 1900
Not long ago; or, Little by little (6): New York Tenement, 1889