Steam powered
Born in 1938, he grow up with two main two main passions - steeplejacks and steam engines. As a little boy, his bedroom window in Bolton overlooked the railway line where he could watch the steam locomotives going about their work to his hearts content.

Over many years Fred studied the way that steeplejacks erected their ladders and scaffold saw their faults and found his own methods. A joiner by trade, Fred is best known for 'felling' chimneys. However, despite this being what is was best known for - it was actually a job he enjoys the least. His actual preference was in restoration of buildings.

Explosive behaviour
Some people mistakenly thought that Fred 'blew up chimneys', but Fred was never a fan of dynamite. He prefered an old fashioned method of cutting a mouth out in the bottom of the chimney and propping the opening up with bits of telegraph poles and wooden chocks. Once enough of the chimney is propped up on wood he then sets light to a large fire, which burns the chocks away and the chimney then falls to earth in the designated direction. Not a precise science, things do not always go to plan, but it is a lot more precise than dynamite and enabled Fred to be awarded jobs where dynamite would have caused too much damage.

Fame finds Fred
Until 20 years ago, Fred was a steeplejack working locally to his own area of Lancashire. Whilst working on the Town Hall in Bolton, the local BBC TV filmed a short news item about him. As a result of this, Fred was approached by a television producer with a view to making 1 half-hour film as part of a series about people with unusual occupations. After several months of filming, the final article was an hour long documentary, screened in his own right. This won two awards for the producer. It was called "Fred Dibnah - Steeplejack" and was aired in 1979. The rest is history.