Sooty and Sweeped

Now that most of our children are too big to fit up a chimney, we have to resort to other methods, such as using a brush and rods. About half a bucketful of soot came down, so I consider it well and truly swept.

Up until Victorian times, children, usually boys, but not exclusively, were sent up chimneys to clear the soot. They would often shin their way up completely naked, often scraping their elbows and knees raw in the process. If there was a slow climbing child, another would be sent up from below to stick pins in their feet or backside.Occasionally one would become stuck with their knees under their chin, the ensuing struggle to free himself would see soot land on his head and cause suffocation. A bricklayer would have to dig him out.

There were a series of Acts in the 1800s to try and outlaw the use of children, but it was not until the Chimney Sweeper's Act of 1875 that it was made illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to sweep a chimney.