Having been a professional chimney sweep for over 30 years, there’s not much that Jethro Vivian doesn’t know about modern chimneys and their problems.
But it’s not chimney-sweeping in today’s world that really interests Jethro. He has spent many years researching the chimney-sweeping trade as it was during the reign of Queen Victoria, and now, dressed as a 19th century Master Sweep, Jethro is sharing this knowledge with schoolchildren throughout the local area.
Standing at over 7ft in the tallest of top-hats, Jethro isn’t quite the sooty figure many people would imagine. His boots are shined so you can see your face in them, and his crisp, white shirt gleams from under his smart waistcoat and jacket, trimmed with golden watch-chains.
Jethro explained to HU17.net “The Victorian Chimney Sweep was the master of quite a little empire. He would employ many young boys to climb the stacks to sweep out the soot. At the end of a very long day, the boys would bring the soot in bags to the Master Sweep’s house where he would sell it to farmers in 7lb bags to be used as fertilizer. He would make as much money from selling the soot as he would from sweeping the chimneys.”
Jethro commissioned the building of a hand-cart earlier this year from a local craftsman, an octogenarian, who carved and turned every piece by hand. The cart has been beautifully painted and enscribed, and now looks as eye-catching as Jethro himself. He has dedicated the cart to the memory of three young boys whose stories Jethro discovered while researching the history of this harrowing line of work.
“There are certainly some terrible details that I would never tell schoolchildren. It would be too upsetting. But the general day-to-day life of a Victorian chimney climber is almost unbelievable. They would sweep twenty chimneys before breakfast, although breakfast would usually only be a mug of stale ale. No matter how little they would want it, they knew that there would be no more work if they did not gulp it down. The boys would work from before dawn until after dark. They would have little sleep and almost no sustenance. Of one hundred boys that would start working in the chimneys, only seven would survive through to adult-hood.”
“When I go into schools, I try to keep the story-telling as light and interesting as possible. I tell the children the three main parts of a Chimney-Sweep’s role. I tell them about sweeping the chimneys, the selling of the soot, and also his role as a Night Man. There’s no real way of avoiding the truth behind this aspect of my work. I would arrange for two small children to carry a long yellow rod between them – the ‘Golden Pole’ – balanced on their shoulders, from which was suspended a large bucket, into which people would empty their chamber-pots. No need for a sewage system.”
But that is all history. The cart that Jethro now proudly pushes around, ringing the brass bell at every opportunity, has been beautifully adorned with silk flowers by Crumbs Floral Designs. Jethro already offers his traditional Chimney Sweep’s ‘good luck’ services to couples on their wedding day, and with the cart now fit for royalty, he will add an extra stunning aspect to the weddings of local brides who want to start married life blessed with a kiss from a real Chimney Sweep.
