Some nine years ago , on the 28/10/2011 my father passed away ending an era that began in 1965 and lasting some 46 years in its entirety. I normally always write some kind of post to remind myself of the, “good old days” as I am a wee bit sentimental but not daft enough to think everything was all a bed of roses.
For instance there was the time when the roof man sent the ball and brush down a wrong chimney due to a broken bridge inside the stack. The first my father knew of it was when the old lady next door came out to complain… totally covered in soot. I remember well him telling me she looked like a cartoon character that had been blown up by a bomb when she took off her glasses.
My mother too had her version of the same story to tell , although her story didn’t begin until he had brought the old ladies clothes and Eider duck down continental quilt home for her to wash. I can only imagine she startled the whole street with her screams as a thousand duck feathers started flying around her kitchen.
These days the sweeping process has evolved somewhat and we use a power sweeping system that means we almost always do not have to climb and put ourselves at risk of falling from a great many heights. In the good old days we had to keep our climbing skills top notch as the Scottish sweeping system was the same as most of the rest of Europe (not rods and brush like in England) a ball and brush going from top down.
My father and a few of his , “roof men” all had their turns at falling off. Fortunately , as far as I can remember nobody was unlucky enough to get seriously injured. Their stories of how lucky they were impressed on me enough to ensure I never fell myself.
Perhaps the best old school stories were of some of the customers themselves , you get to meet all sorts of people in the course of sweeping chimneys. There once was an old lady who had every electric socket in her house filled with plugs and went to great pains to ensure we immediately replaced her plug once our hoover plug was removed…. in case the electric escaped into the house? This was the 1970’s and she was very old at the time so we guessed she must have thought electric worked something like gas.
Despite the many changes in modern society itself and the sweeping profession , some things never change. Soot is still carcinogenic , we still get dirty even with double gloves , PPE3 face masks and face wipes. I will always be impatient for the decontamination shower & scrub clean at the end of the day. Even after a whole weekend off I still blow the odd black snot out my nose ; trying hard not to imagine how much I have absorbed or what the death dust is doing to my anatomy.
Nobody can factor the health risks we undergo into the modest fee we receive for sweeping a flue and keep its occupants safe…. there is also much more to running a business , just the admin alone itself takes up a considerable amount of time & energy.
Oh well , another year has passed dad…. I will Always love and miss you.
Category Archives: History
A brief history of Chimney Sweeping
A brief history of Chimney Sweeping
Even in the Georgian period of history of chimney sweeping, it was understood that chimneys had to be brush cleaned. Back then the 17th century Master Sweep of the day would employ small boys to climb and scramble up chimneys. The task for these climbing boys was to brush clean the inside of the flue with small hand-held brushes and they also used metal scrapers to remove the harder tar deposits left by wood or log fire smoke.
The boys were apprentices and were bound to the trade as young as seven years old. A Master was paid a fee to clothe, keep and teach the child his trade. Sweeps’ Boys were usually parish children or orphans; though others were sold into the trade by their families. Some grew up to be Journeymen (assistants to the Master) and the remainder were put out to various trades to try to learn a new occupation. There was even a London Society of Master Sweeps with its own set of rules, one of which included that boys were not required to work on Sundays but had to attend Sunday School, to study, learn and read the Bible.
However, conditions for the boys were harsh and often cruel, they slept in cellars on bags of soot and were seldom washed. It was a dangerous and filthy job for the boys to do, especially without the protection of modern safety clothing and respirators. Years of accumulated soot and grime often produced chimney sweeps cancer (of the testicles).There are many recorded instances where these Climbing Boys choked and suffocated to death by dust inhalation whilst attempting to clean chimneys. Casualties were also often due to boys becoming stuck in narrow flues or falling from climbing rotten chimney stacks.
It took many years and campaigns before Acts of Parliament finally approved by the House of Lords outlawed the use of Climbing Boys. In 1864 Lord Shaftesbury brought in the “Act for the Regulation of Chimney Sweepers” which established a penalty of £10.00 for offenders.
In the early part of the 18th century various types of chimney cleaning methods were being developed. An engineer from Bristol, Mr. Joseph Glass is widely recognised as the inventor of the chimney cleaning equipment which has become universal even to this day. His was the design and introduction of canes and brushes, which could be pushed and propelled up from the fireplace into the chimney above. Early canes were made of Malacca and imported from the East Indies and brushes were made of whale bones.
The other method of cleaning flues that was developed originally came from the Continent – Europe (and was adopted in Scotland because of the historical contacts we had with Europe) was the ball, brush and rope system which was lowered down from the top of the chimney. The weight of the lead or iron ball pulls the brush down, cleaning the chimney. With the Industrial Revolution and ever greater demand for coal production, chimney sweeps grew in numbers. In Victorian London, there were over 1,000 chimney sweeps serving the area.
The continued expansion of coal as the main fuel for domestic heating ensured that the sweeping trade flourished. This was up to the early 1960s when gas began to be installed and replace coal as a source of domestic heating. The switch to gas continued in the seventies and many of the old-established family sweeps retired or gave up the business. Until this period, sweeps had traditionally cleaned only coal, wood and oil chimneys. Public awareness of the need for clean, safe and clear chimneys was almost non-existent but Carbon monoxide poisonings from blocked chimneys began to be noticed.
Above text copyright Martin Glynn, President of The National Association of Chimney Sweeps (Used & adapted without permission). You can read more here on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimney_sweep
