Fred Dibnah - How to Ladder a Chimney 

What a man, His likes will never be seen again, Rest In Peace Fred

What happened to this country,,why has this type of Man disappeared. There should be a monument to this Great man.

Every time I watch Fred, I can't help but think: "a working class hero is something to be"

'How to Ladder a Chimney" Should say " how to have the biggest pair of balls and survive" I have climbed scaffolding all my life, 50 years' worth, and I always considered, myself as the best, but this guy blows me away, he is king!!

Sounds complicated, but Fred was the master of laddering a 200-foot chimney What a lovely bloke & true character🙌 RIP Fred

One of my heroes. Cut from different cloth.

This bloke was seriously mental. No sane person would this. Amazing guy.

haha "that's where the beer belly comes in handy". what a man

Balls of steel this man had

All I can say is LEGEND !! 🙃

I could watch Fred all day. This is remarkable!!!

Wow. I would have loved to hang out with this guy and listen to his stories for hours. Shoutout to the BBC crew filming from the lift. Did you see it swaying in the wind? Wow!

Love watching these old episodes what a brave man it takes a very special kind of man to do this kinda work this used to be great TV not like today's reality TV with is a load of rubbish

My mini claim to fame is that I stood & watched Fred on Bolton Church steeple! I was fascinated.. People were going about their day & did not not seem aware. Just Fred, his ladders & some ropes. Would be stopped these days because of "Elf & Safe" I guess? What a legend he was. Thank you for posting.

I get vertigo sitting on the sofa just watching this😂

Crazy what he did and how he did it. Great video!

I've seen this many times but it's still better than any of the crap today 🥰 thanks for sharing 👊

Ena Mill in Atherton . I lived a minute from here and it's all still there .

He’s a national hero

The heart and arms of a Lion!!

Legend. Absolute legend! ⭐️

I love this it needs more views, I didn't realise he just hooks his leg round the ladder the bloke was absolutely fearless its quite heart stopping watching him climb higher & higher & just tapping in a dog I wonder if its where the phrase '' top dog'' comes from?

Good auld Fred doing what he done best i do miss watching him and i can mind back tae the first time i watched him still excites me and am forty this year .

What a brave hero,unbelievable bloke.

Stumbled across this. Glad I did - fascinating…

Ive had an incredibly shit couple of months in life just everything battered me from all sides and its been just horrible. My only bit of calm is Freds videos...cheers Fred.

When the winds trying to snap the ladder off sideways, it can be quite exciting!!! No Fred, no - that's shit scary is what that is. It's unreal to think this wasn't actually that long ago! The hard workers like Fred are still about, just have far more red tape in place these days to do the job - as an office mug I don't profess to be one, but certainly admire them!

I’m shitting myself watching it😱

My palms were sweating when he put the first ladder up. Then he told us how exciting it is when the wind is blowing and he is 3/4 of the way up the chimney. I would rather be shot at dawn than put those ladders up the side of a 200 foot chimney. What a man Fred was.

Old Fred must have been quite physically fit to do this day in day out.

Another great video

Hero of mine they don’t make men like this anymore in any shape or form!

Health and safety feared Fred and just left him alone

A national treasure

Legend!

Way braver than most people especially today could u imagine grandad telling you at 15 today where pointing that chimney at the top ...shit myself and definitely not going up that ladder hanging on to nothing serious man FRED HES A PROPPER TRAIDSMAN OF MANY TALENTS ..RIP MY FRIEND ❤

Well done.

The camera man in the skylift probally shitting his pants.and then there is. Fred just sitting on his ladder explaning hisnwork

Fred dibna was a national treasure. But also, you're seeing a lost art. And a batshit crazy man lol it's insane the things people do for money. There's a man lift right there, that he could rent, inspect the whole chimney in one day. Instead of spending hours and hours lugging ladders around and risking your life for a rotten smoke stack. Like I get that's how he had to do it back in the day, but things evolve. The technology to do it quickly and safely, and cheaply is literally 6 ft away from him, filming him doing it the old way.

Bloody crazy 😧😧

PURE BALLS!

Legend

I'm stunned. Great famous man. However, I was a steeple Jack in the mid 1980's in Nottingham. We did lightning rods, top offs, pointing up in a bosons chair. Painting cooling towers. I never was involved with bringing a complete stack down. I would start with the first ladder. Two dogs. One each side. Not just one. In the middle. They were placed about four rungs from the bottom. Four rungs from the top you had the same. We had 18 inch metal rods that connected to thr ladder in the predetermined place. We hit in the first bottom two dogs and place the ladder upright and put the right angled hook into the hole that is in the dog. I then climb the ladder half way and put in the next two dogs at the top of this first ladder. I then climb to he top and put my leg through a ru g and hook my foot to the ring below. I then put in the two bottom dogs for the next ladder the next ladder will fit into a metal bracket on the top of both staves of each ladder. The ladders go end to end. Not half way lashed and over and over again. We dont have pullies. The number two guy puts his arm through the next ladder and climbs the first ladder. I am sitting right on the top of the first ladder. I take hold of his ladder and ax he continues to climb. I place the staves into the metal brackets and place the two metal rods into the holes of the bottom dogs. He goes down the ladder. I go up the second ladder to the middle. Hook my leg around the ring like before and put in the top dogs for this second ladder. And ar continue to the top. Perfectly safe, especially with four dogs per ladder ... not two. No roping off.. No wasting half the ladder length making it twice as long to erect. I respect Fred. But in Nottingham there is no company....not even Blackburn and Starling who would have employed him. Respects. 😊😊😊😊😊

I know exactly what it takes to do this job. I have a 2 step - stool in my kitchen to reach my top cabinet. You have to be careful that high up, any breeze will knock you down!

2lb hammer a Cold chisel few bits of wood. IRON hook stays. Two per ladder. Etc. this I what built bridges railways etc etc. simple cheap reliable 🙏

I don't know how anyone could do this job and live long

Its amazing the whole thing is held steady by the one guy on the ground

Now here's a man who knows how to handle a hammer.

For a man that did this so many times, it’s incredible he never once had a serious accident in his career. Well, except getting married, that was a tragedy he’d say. 😕

God bless the lift equipmentzzzz

This guy has balls the size of watermelons, im absolutely terrified of heights, so seeing this man climb up the side of this chimney with just rope, twine, and ladders is scary as shit. No tie offs, no osha, just a good time had by all lmao.

After repairing my sloping roof, with sweat on my buttocks from the fright, I thought I was king. But compared to him it was only Doom level 0.1, he is at level 1000

Brilliant 👏🏻 ow hes just avin a chat while up there

The videos are better without music

Very impressive!! A man's man!! Another amazing video all about toughness and grit can be found if you search "The Last Cape Horners" . Give it a look. REAL MEN like Fred !! These types of videos should be standard viewing in schools. Show the kids just how easy life is today as compared to yesteryear.

Ena Mill is across the road from me I’ve seen Fred here.

The days when a man was a real man and no this crap weve got in this country now . R.i.p fred

I wonder how Fred laddered the 2 overhangs on India Mill Chimney, Darwen.

Wonder how many times he has hit his hand with that hammer

You can have Spider-Man. I’ll have Fred…

Never be another like Fred. The guys in the lift are like..quit rocking, dont move

He’s got some massive balls

Are the ladders timber?

How can Fred get up them ladders with bollicks that big

Would it be possible for the chimney owner have ladders fixed full time

Fred makes me want to be a stronger man

my question is How many ladders did Fred own? and did they all go on that Land Rover defender ??

Fooooooking hell. Sod that, get dizzy watching him do it . Balls of steal to go that high, health and safety would have a field day today

As a urban climber i love those old videos but climbing a ladder isnt difficult. The work on the chimney is Impressive. In india many workers are work on the big Steelbridge in Kalkutta without even a ladder, they climb the steelstructures, true lattice Climbing.

There is something very Monty Python on this video...

An all ameriBritish Hero

Why didn’t he just hire one of them machines that was filming him 😮

Why not just use a crane? "No, I prefer me ladders!" This guy is oldl school.....and he still has to get all the way to the top to set up rigging and start demolition on the chimney!

Man had nerves

Why didn't they leave the dogs in permanently?

Vivió mucho para no usar ninguna medida de seguridad. Evidentemente eran otros tiempos. Hoy no le permitirian subir. De todos modos, mas allá de saber lo que hacía, tuvo suerte, porque los accidentes ocurren... Parece mentira el control que tenía, cero vértigo, sostenido con sus piernas trabadas entre escalones. Si fuera en norteamérica, lo dinamitan y a otra cosa.

Done this couple times. First time was on a steal stack. Half way up on my first time the wind caught my ladder. Had to jam it into the ladder I was on cuz nothing is allowed to fall. Boss yelled to ask where I was going% 😂

Next time: How to ladder a stocking.

Impressive, but I don't understand why they don't just leave the dogs installed in the chimney...

Sailors “ top men “ from the 1800 century. With knowledge of ROPES PULLEYS. THE basic physics of BLOCK an TACKLE. where perfectly placed to build these giant towers. And factors. Etc. before proper scaffolding. In China they still use woobly Bamboo up til 60 ft. .. er not anymore. Fred would laugh his ass off About Fast Buildtech and. One bag of cement to 20 bags sand. Instead of 6 bags sand one band cement. Sadly China. Don’t know this

Don’t forget: diversity built Britain.

No...nope....no way.

Great vid didn’t need the annoying piano in the background

annoying music added. probably to get around copyright bots.

Why did you have to add that annoying music?

This shit freaks me out. No ppe yikes

Why ard the crap piano music?

Too bad they ruined this video by adding that stupid piano soundtrack. I know why they did it to get by the copyright, but still it's awful.

Beats a banana tree climber into the education

Just shows you not all "clinically insane people " are dangerous

And I was feeling sorry for myself when I was at the top of a 32 foot ladder. 🪜 😢