gave Dibnah valuable experience and his employer expanded the business to include property repairs. Aged about 17–18 he climbed the chimney at Barrow Bridge, for a 10 shilling bet. During the night he took two Union flags to the top and secured each to the lightning conductors there. The Bolton Evening News reported the incident, with a photograph of Dibnah's feat, but attributed it to the activities of students from Manchester University. At about the same time, Dibnah decided to replace the chimney stack at his mother's house on Alfred Street with one of his own design, as his mother used only one fireplace—leaving four of the five chimney pots redundant. As the single opening at the top of the new stack was only about wide, the flue needed regular maintenance. On one occasion, he was cleaning the flue using a sack of bricks tied to a rope when the sack ripped open, breaking several pipes and flooding his mother's kitchen. After the death of his mother, the house was sold and the council placed a preservation order on the chimney, which remains to this day. National service Aged 22 Dibnah was conscripted into the army to complete his National Service and was given a position in the cook house. He spent six weeks training at Aldershot, before being sent to Catterick to learn the basics of army catering. He was then posted with the 14th/20th King's Hussars and sent to West Germany. There he persuaded his commanding officer to let him repair the regiment's farmhouse (used for stabling horses and hounds) and he was soon given a more permanent position as a builder and handyman. He dug a deep shaft into which the horse manure and dog faeces would be emptied and he also fed the animals. He impressed his commanding officers by making a weathercock from army kitchen trays, but was also chastised when he was found with a 1914 Luger P08 pistol he had bought from a fellow soldier. He often received parcels of alcohol and tobacco from his mother, which allowed him to maintain the habits he had formed when he began his working life. Although Dibnah initially resented being called into service, he would later be more positive about the experience: Steeplejack On his return from National Service in 1962 Dibnah retrieved his tools from storage, bought a 1927 350 cc AJS motorcycle for 21