Chimney sweep

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Chimney sweep in the 1850s

A chimney sweep is a person who cleans chimneys for a living. They are also referred to as chimney service technicians. The occupation of chimney sweep is considered to be one of the oldest in the world, as chimneys have been around since ancient times. Though only in the last two hundred years has the chimney grown large enough to hold a man, giving rise to the image of the chimney sweep as it developed in the time of the Industrial Revolution. With the increased urban population, the number of houses with chimneys grew in pace and the profession of chimney sweep became much respected and sought-after, though sometimes derided in verse, ballad and pantomime.

In Victorian Age Britain, the business became notorious for employing young boys as they were small enough to enter the chimneys and clean them from inside. The work was dirty and dangerous, and their employers were notorious for abusing and exploiting them.

Eventually, the public outcry against the practice led to a search for a substitute and the invention of a special brush with a collapsible handle and other more subtle innovations. This allowed a sweep to reach right up the chimney without the need to enter it. In the mid twentieth century, the invention of a vacuum suction device that could be attached over the fireplace made the process cleaner than ever.

Modern chimney sweep

Eventually, with the rise of central heating systems and the decline in the use of chimneys, the sweep profession became less prevalent, though the service continues in most communities on a small scale.

Chimney sweeps were often depicted in Victorian literature as heartless, abusive scoundrels typified in the book, The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley.

In Oliver Twist a particularly vicious chimney sweep called Gamfield wants to take Oliver as an apprentice, but at the last minute the magistrate refuses to sanction the move ( " Mr Gamfield did happen to labour under the slight imputation of having bruised three or four boys to death already." )

However, with the development of newer brush equipment and the end of child labor, the profession changed its image to one of agile and good natured men, the chief example being in the book series Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney film adaptation which has an extended dance sequence in which the jovial workers celebrate the end of the workday with fearlessly acrobatic dance.

In parts of Great Britain it is considered lucky for a bride to see a chimney sweep on her wedding day. Many modern British sweeps hire themselves out to attend weddings in pursuance of this tradition.

Chimney sweep

See also