A Chimney Sweeps Tale

"What did I tell ya? There's the whole world at your feet. And who gets to see it but the birds, the stars, and the chimney sweeps."

Mary Poppins and Bert have a lot to answer for in terms of how many of us view a Chimney sweep. Young children, boys as young as four, were bought from their parents and the workhouse, trained and sent into a life of danger. The household chimneys and industrial chimeys all were climbed. Work was hazardous and some of these children became trapped in narrow flues, suffocating and even burnt to death!

My favourite book as a child was Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies, where Tom the young boy chimney sweep falls into a river and is saved and transformed. Chimney sweeps were often portrayed as villains and not to be trusted, I have since discovered the book was highly derogatory towards race and religions and so it seems the morals of a sweep!

So I had (as is usual with me) a highly romantic perception.

 As some of  you know my family are working on my Granny's house to get it ready so she can move back in and we are very happy to be moving in to help her. The gas fire in the living room, needed replacing and part of the task before putting in a new fire, was to get the chimney swept as it was very blocked.

My Auntie rang around and booked a chimney sweep and last Saturday, I was very excited to watch the process.

I said on Twitter last week, I would be very disappointed if the knock on the door, opened to a young boy, urchin style, with a sooty face and a "cockernee" accent!

I was disappointed on that score, a tall well spoken man walked in, in smart shirt and trousers. I did look past him to see if a sooty individual was following, but no here was our sweep! 

No twirling of brush, just a strange looking hoover and a bag resembling a golf bag which was full of poles. 

I asked if I could take photos and he kindly agreed.

The sweep carefully laid sheets and  began to hoover the chimney I was not going to see the brush I'd imagined at all, it all seemed clinical and modern and not what I wanted to see.

I commented that Mary Poppins must have had a lot to answer for, the idea of somebody up on the roof, Mr Sweep told me that especially in homes belong to people from the US, when he arrived, the customer would point up to the chimney and go to close the door. They were under the impression he would be scaling the roof. He went on to say that in France and Scotland the sweep method is actually done from the top, a huge weighted brush crashes down from the top.

 Then out came the iconic brush and my faith was restored.

A soot container was placed in the opening, the brush was placed into the chimney, then the area around the hearth was covered leaving a hole that the brush pole protruded from. The chimney sweep added more poles to scale the passageway up and started to sweep!

He turned and pushed, twisting the brush up and up, the soot started to work loose, it sounded like raining sand, this went on for a minute or two and he said "Do you want to go outside to see the brush?" Sue (my auntie) and I were off, my camera in hand, out the front and across the road so we could see it.

This was the real thing, the only part of the process I had imagined. The brush emerged, meaning the flue was cleared. The whole procedure had taken minutes. Back inside the sweep began to bring the brush down. Clean the soot box and remove the sheets, no mess, no real technical changes since the days of the urchins, but I was happy and in the midst of lots of stressful days getting a house ready and packing up my home, this was a bright spot!

See my Silent Sunday this weekend for the best image which I wanted to keep for later!