Chimney Sweeps

[alisoncc 379]

Just been watching a re-run of "Monarch of the Glen", and Duncan was attempting to sweep a chimney and it reminded me of when my Dad used to sweep chimneys around the Medders in his spare time when not working on the railways.

My Mum had taken an old sheet which was passed it's use-by-date, had cut a hole in the middle and then sewed a sleeve off one of my Dad's old shirts into the hole. The idea was that the brush rods went through the sleeve, enabling my Dad to seal off the whole of a fireplace with the sheet, yet still keep adding rods as the brush went further up the chimney.

The rods had screw fittings which enabled as many as required to be screwed together to reach up to the chimney pot. Each rod would have been about five foot long, and many houses were like ours three storeys high, plus the chimney and pot would add quite a few extra feet.

One of us kids used to go along to keep an eye on the chimney pot so we could let him know when the brush emerged. When we would yell and scream "Dad it's out". This was in the days when all fireplaces had a mantlepiece. We used to take along a few housebricks to hold the sheet down on the mantlepiece. Dad had to be very careful in not pulling the sheet away, otherwise soot would go everywhere and the householder would be none too pleased.

Come Autumn we would be really busy every weekend as people prepared for their Winter fires. I have a vague recollection of Dad selling the soot to someone, but no idea who or for what purpose.

PS Don't think he ever got invited to a wedding to kiss the bride. Which was supposed to bring them good luck.

[DAVIDW 1,683]

Last time we had our chimney done the sweep asked if anyone wanted to go outside to see the brush come out the top . Supposed to be good luck ?

[darkazana 1,736]

We get our chimney swept still, but its not the same. Uses a vax nowadays. Once had a go in one of our former houses. My dad had some rods and a brush (Don't know why, he was a builder!!!) It was great fun, and having watched our regular sweep a few times knew how to keep everything clean(ish!!!!!!!!!)

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

Here's Sooty & Sweep

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

I had my own set of chimney sweeping rods and brush in the UK, it was hard to get a sweep and expensive, so bought a set. I have the rods and wire brush for our stove pipe here, that has to be cleaned from the top down on the roof.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

A little climbing boy could have helped

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Nahhh, it's only a single story dwelling..

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

#1 bet the soot went to gardeners, seem to remember piles of soot on allotments back in those days.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

I could do with some soot for my allotment

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

I think either "elf and safety" or the environmental agencies would string you up if you used it on the garden today...The soot from coal is carcinogenic, plus it has mercury, cadmium arsenic and a whole lot of other nasty's in it....That's why power stations have efficient scrubbers in the stacks to collect those nasty's.

Soot from wood burning is creosote, with having insulated stove pipes, mine forms a hard crust on the inside of the stovepipes. It all gets burned in the fire after being "swept" down.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

Dad always put soot on the garden at home never did me any harm.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Probably not, we probably breathed a lot of those nasties during the smogs... Just a few things coal contains which does go up the chimney, Chlorine, mercury, quite a lot by all accounts!! Arsenic, cadmium, highly toxic to carbon life forms...LOL..Boron, Chromium, Lead, Molybdenum, Thallium, Selenium, probably a lot more too....

[Cliff Ton 10,464]

This is how a real sweep does it http://youtu.be/te_Nv3lMUnA

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

He was born and raised not to awfully far from where I'm living now.

[Beefsteak 305]

My only personal experience with chimney sweeps was about a year or so after we moved in here we had one round to clean ours in June.(50 quid) I was out at work when he came, but he very nearly convinced SWMBO to book him again in 2 months "As it will need doing again then"

I rang him to cancel the appointment , pointing out to him that "seeing as how we only have two or three open fires a year it's unlikely to need doing for at least another 10 years or more, let alone in the middle of summer!!"

[Bilboro-lad 294]

Just been reading about the old victorian sweeps. The reason that the boys had no shoes was that the soot caused cankers so they always went barefoot no matter what the weather,

They were also prone to some kind of cancer of the dangly bits that was fatal in every case. I read a coroners report about a boy who they couldn't get down from the chimney so the sweep thought he'd gone to sleep so put straw in the hearth and lit it. He still didn't come down. They had to call the builders to break down the breast to retrieve the body. Another case was a boy that turned up at the hospital minus his kneecaps and the all the tendons were showing bright white around his legs. Apparently he'd slipped from the top of the chimney to the bottom.

How old were these lads? 15? 16? No, the best lads were just six years old. These are cases right here in Nottingham when Britain had an empire that ruled the world.

[poohbear 1,360]

I have some horrendous stories of the poor kids in Nottingham being sent up chimneys.A machine was eventually designed that could do the job, sometimes better, and could be carried on the sweeps shoulder.But often the new law banning the use of children was ignored...the machine being carried but the kids still being used.

Nottingham was one of the worst areas where the law was ignored.One article written by a sweep mentions that he was taken to court before a magistrate for using a boy...he was given a conditional discharge. But states that the magistrate was one of his customers, and had the week before insisted that he send a boy up because he thought they did a better job.

The thought of a five year old having his raw bloody knees rubbed in the strongest brine to harden the flesh,and being beaten to make him climb shows how cruel they were in those days.And why people like Dickens wrote the stories he did to bring public attention to the horrors of child labour.

The children were mostly bought like slaves and the dead were quietly disposed of....and there were many.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

Re climbing boys there is a good account on the subject in "Victorian Nottingham" (Richard Iliffe & Wilfred Baguley) Volume 17.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

That's what I was reading. I never realised what a terrible place Nottingham was. Parents would give their kids to the sweep to get rid of them.

[Michael Booth 7,364]

My dad tried to give me away when I was a kid.....but nobody would have me

[AfferGorritt 868]

My great-grandad was a sweep by profession, and his rods were handed down to my grandad, who swept his own chimney and those of the neighbours. The soot was piled up in our back garden to be spread out when needed. Me and my mates were into exposives at the time (we had a healthy interest in chemistry although not health and safety) and made our own gunpowder from sulphur, potassium nitrate and charcoal (I think). I remember digging a hole in grandad's soot pile, filling it with homemade powder, laying a Jetex fuse (from Beecrofts) and covering it all up. We lit the fuse and legged it down the garden - followed by a huge black cloud! Grandma was not pleased, though we did point out it saved him from spreading it!

[Compo 10,328]

I swept our main chimney on Monday. I use rods and a brush like in the good old days. I put a sheet over the fireplace and shove the brush up behind it. Great fun as the clouds of soot billow down the chimney though! the other one we use has a multi-fuel lstove fitted and access has to be via the roof by putting the brush down rather than up. That is a job for Mr Sweep but costs £30 a throw so I only have it done every second year.

[poohbear 1,360]

It's a shame most of us don't have a working fireplace nowadays.A case of putting all your eggs in one basket . They've got us by the wotsits now with no alternatives.

[piggy and babs 544]

one of our friends tony barks is still a sweep he says more and more people seem to be going back to open fires or wood burners.

[Compo 10,328]

We are currently burning storm damaged trees from the spruce wood across the road. I have enougjh to last a couple of winters at the moment. A coal or peat fire is nicer though.