In this first episode, Fred, who came to fame as a steeplejack, demolishes his last ever chimney at a textile mill near Oldham.

Fred visits an open cast mine near Wigan to get coal to power his engine, then goes to Astley Green Mining Museum which houses Lancashire's only surviving pit headgear and engine house.

Fred reaches Cumbria where iron ore was once mined on a large scale, and enjoys the Lake District on a friend's steam boat. It's then on to the Florence Mine at Egremont and the Workington Steel Works.

Fred and his steersman Alf travel up to Scotland where they marvel at the ingenuity of the Falkirk wheel and visit one of the few surviving traditional iron works left in the region.

Fred visits Ryhope pumping station in Sunderland and meets the volunteers who maintain the museum, travels across the Middlesborough transporter bridge and sees the Israel Newton boiler works in Bradford.

Fred fulfils an ambition by driving across the imposing Scammonden Bridge over the M62, then visits Sheffield to take a tour round a forge and to watch crucible steel being produced.

Fred stops off at Andy Thornton's, a company that makes ornate carvings, moves on to Worsborough to have a go at making hot forge rivets, then travels down to Derbyshire to visit the Midland Railway Centre.

Leaving the engine to be fixed, Fred visits David Ragsdale, a skilled pattern maker who just happens to own six steam engines. He then meets a man who runs a garden centre and museum all through the power of steam, before taking a trip to Ashbourne to visit a clockmaker.

Fred meets up with a few old friends at the North Staffs and Cheshire Traction Engine Club. He visits a pumping station with a great triple expansion engine, then calls in at the Severn Valley Railway at Bridgenorth before a look round the Black Country Living Museum.

red, Alf and Jimmy continue their investigation of the Black Country by watching the skills of an authentic chain maker, producing chains in the same way as they would have been in 1910. After all that hard work they sit down to enjoy fish and chips washed down with a pint of local ale. They have a long journey ahead, travelling all the way from Dudley to Anglesey to visit Parys Mountain, a vast copper mine that was once the largest in the world. The copper from Parys Mountain would be made into sheets and taken to a copper spinner just like the one Fred goes to visit in the East Midlands. The spinning process may look easy but, as Fred discovers, there is a lot of skill involved.

Fred Dibnah reaches the final stage of his monumental journey around Britain on his traction engine. This episode begins in the mountains of Snowdonia, where Fred is on his way to Wales's National Slate Museum. However, to get there he must first get over the Llanberis Pass - a big test for the engine. At the slate museum, Fred and Alf take a look in the workshop, where all the machinery is driven by a line shaft an eighth of a mile long. In the pub, they meet up with a couple of the ex-quarry workers and have a chat over a pint. On their way back home to Bolton, the duo stop in to have a look at the world's first boat lift in Cheshire. The Anderton boat lift was built in 1875 as an alternative to a series of locks. Whilst here, Fred takes a trip on the lift to learn a bit more about its history. Before arriving home, Fred visits a couple of local works that over the years have supplied him with his pressure gauges and lots of nuts and bolts.

Fred completes his journey by visiting the Welsh Slate Museum, then the world's first boat lift in Cheshire before returning home to Bolton. He makes one final trip down to London to collect his MBE for services to Broadcasting and Industrial Heritage from the Queen.