FRED episode 4 - drinking and climbing - Fred Dibnah

Fred is buried in the same cemetery as my family, I salute to him every time I pass his grave, what a legend.

Nearly 40 years later and we're still watching and listening to Fred, what an absolute legend, they don't make em like him anymore

I love how the guy climbs 500ft tall chemneys without a harness, but keeps his life-jacket to dig on an island in a pond. We all have our fears haha

Fred reminds me of an old saying, "When Ships were made of Wood and Men were made of Steel "... Thank you.

This guy is the total antidote to the celebrity driven hell we live in today....this is clever hard working stuff..brilliant.

Is it just me or does anyone else watching these find them so therapeutic?! Just brilliant....

This is what a reality show should be. It doesn't force drama with music and editing, it just lets the subject be themself and offer a fascinating look into a life very few people will get to experience otherwise. Rest in peace, big man.

It’s comforting to know that even an engineering mind as good as Fred’s can be slightly thwarted by a deckchair.

Donald was his perfect right hand man. Never said a whole lot but Fred trusted him with his life.  2 legends

Fred had more industrial output from his shed in 1982 than the entire UK has now

Some 40+ years ago we were in the back room of our first house, a tiny 2 bedroom terrace on Leigh Road, Leigh Lancashire, when our entire house began rumbling and shaking. It felt like an earthquake, but the sound of a steam whistle made us go to the front door to investigate. There in full glory was Fred trundling past us in his traction engine and trailer causing absolute traffic mayhem behind him as he was heading back to Bolton!!!! A blast on his whistle and a wave to me and my wife as he passed us is still one of my abiding memories!!! RIP Fred, still missed👍👍👍

I used to window clean near where Fred lived and I loved listening to the noise that came from his back yard when he was working in it. Occasionally I’d see him and we’d wave to each other like old friends. Since he’s gone and to this day I find the area eerily quiet. RIP big man 😢

Hands up those who would have loved to have spent an afternoon having a brew with Fred and listening to his tales?

Every morning between 10 and 10.15 Fred would dip Health& Safety blokes in his tea

I'm gonna always come back to this for the rest of my life. What a man. What a story. What a time capsule. Inspiring and meditative.

So sad how TV has changed in the last 40 years So well made and relaxing and listen how well Fred and everybody else speaks

I had to smile when I saw the piece on the 'island'. That lake was man made, when the construction of the nearby M62 (now M60 ring road) was crossing the Irwell valley. A motorway bridge was constructed, in order to span both the river Irwell and the Salford to Bolton railway line. The lake was formed, when the motorway construction needed extra material to bring the land adjoining the bridge to the same level. So, they started excavating the valley floor, to obtain the material. I'm not sure what went wrong, but they needed a lot more material than first estimated. There was a problem though, in the middle of their excavations sat an electricity pole, which carried the wires that supplied a property on the other side of the river. So they dug around it, thus forming the island. The electricity pole had long since been removed when this film was shot, but if you look back at the footage, you can clearly see the remaining 'stump' where it had been cut off. I smile because at about the age of 13 (I'm 59 now), Me and one of my mates took a tent over to the island and slept for the night. We achieved this by strapping all our gear to a lorry tyre inner tube, and towed it across whilst swimming. Sounds ridiculous now, but it was a big adventure when you're 13. By the way, the island was never flattened, and is now covered in dense shrubs. R.I.P. Fred, you were a legend.

Chuck Norris had a poster of Fred on his bedroom wall........

I've ben sitting smiling half an hour almost, what a character. How can you not admire a person like that...

Me my wife and my small son were fortunate enough to see Fred fell the chimney of the Alder Mill in Leigh , Lancs using his old method of using fire to burn through the wooden props he had installed to support a massive section of the chimney base he had removed . No explosives mere fire. Any movement of the chimney simply using a metal rod installed between two rows of bricks just above the top of the hole he had taken out to enable him to build his wooden props. He came chatting to the crowd who were assembled to see the felling of the chimney. The irony was seeing smoke again pouring out of the top of the chimney for one last time before it’s demise was quite moving seeing that I had actually worked at Alder Mill as a lad. Then the rod slowly began to droop, the time of the felling was imminent but Fred still went to take a look at the fire !!!!! Then came the honking horn and Fred shouting ‘she’s going’ and like some gravely wounded animal the chimney slowly fell to the ground so gracefully it brought a tear to my eye. Another part of my home Towns history gone forever. Never again would those huge white bricks towards the top of the tower spelling out ALDER would be visible across the rooftops of Leigh. The only remaining piece of that huge cotton mill is ,what was , the small office , but it still proudly displays ‘Alder Mill’. above the arched doorway.