“Our Members work strictly to the NACS Code of Practice and Code of Conduct for the cleaning of chimneys. On completion of work, NACS Sweeps issue a Certificate of Chimney Sweeping and recommend when future cleaning is necessary.”

All fuel burning appliances whether coal, wood, oil or gas requires a source of combustible air. It is always imperative that they are able to breathe.

The exhaust gas funnel or flue, including cowls or extractor fans should be thoroughly cleaned and or scraped at least annually.

W MARSDEN specialise in servicing and fitting of chimney pots, cowls, liners, flues, gas fires,and more. All work carried out comes with a certificate and also being a member of the National Association of Chimney Sweeps all work is professionally finished.

From  a Health & Safety point of view it is vital that any chimney pot, cowl, extractor fan or any terminal that is fitted to the top of the chimney is fitted and maintained correctly.

Insurance companies now take exception to claims for chimney fires when insufficient care has not been taken in the maintenance of the heating appliance. They are also concerned in the quality of the service and the qualifications of the maintenance company.

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 it is only in the last two hundred years that the chimney has 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. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Western Europe, construction of rooflines with crow-stepped gables became common to allow chimney sweeps convenient access to the chimney top. With the increased urban population, the number of houses with chimneys grew in pace and the occupation of chimney sweep became much respected and sought-after, although it is sometimes derided in verse, ballad and pantomime.

In 1788, the Act for the Better Regulation of Chimney Sweepers and their Apprentices was passed, to limit a sweeper to six apprentices, at least 8 years old, but lacked enforcement.[1]

In 1840 a law was passed making it illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to sweep chimneys. A Friendly Society for the Protection and Education of Chimney-Sweepers' Boys had been established in 1800[2]. The 1840 Act became a dead letter. The Chimney Sweepers Regulation Act 1864, c37. tightened controls significantly. Lord Shaftesbury was a main proponent of the Bill.

A Chimney Sweepers Act was passed in 1875 that required chimney sweepers to be authorised by the police to carry on their businesses in the district, providing enforcement.[1]

Modern chimney sweep

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.

Today, chimney sweeps still maintain a thriving new industry in many parts of the world. The industry has expanded from the maintenance of wood-burning fireplace and appliance venting systems to include venting for many types of heating appliances. Venting systems for Heating Oil, natural gas, wood and pellet burning appliances, including building furnaces and space heaters are maintained by modern chimney sweeps. The standard chimney brush is still used, along with more modern tools (such as vacuums, cameras and special chimney cleaning tools), although most sweeps are done from the bottom of the chimney, rather than the top, to prevent the dispersion of dust and debris[3].

Modern sweeps are laborers, and are usually trained to diagnose and repair hazards along with simple maintenance such as sweeps. In the US, two trade organizations that help to regulate the industry are the Chimney Safety Institute of America and National Chimney Sweeps Guild.

Chimney sweeps were often depicted in Victorian literature as heartless scoundrels who abused their child workers. They are typified in The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley. The English poet William Blake portrayed the chimney sweep as an abused child who hoped for a better life. In both "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience", Blake showcases the life of a common sweeper and exposes those who allowed barbaric actions against them to take place. In Charles Dickens's 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." )

In "The Shepherdess and the Sweep" (1845), a fairy tale by the Danish poet and writer Hans Christian Andersen, a porcelain chimney sweep sits upon a table top near his love, a porcelain shepherdess. When the two are threatened, the chimney sweep gallantly conducts his love safely to the rooftop through the stove pipe. Andersen describes his chimney sweep as "black as coal, and also made of china. He was, however, quite as clean and neat as any other china figure; he only represented a black chimney-sweep, and the china workers might just as well have made him a prince, had they felt inclined to do so. He stood holding his ladder quite handily, and his face was as fair and rosy as a girl’s; indeed, that was rather a mistake, it should have had some black marks on it."

With the development of newer brush system and the end of child labor, the occupation 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 fearless acrobatics. Ther leader, "Bert", played by Dick van Dyke, sings "Chim Chim Cher-ee" which won the Oscar for "Best Song" in 1965.

Barbara Vine's novel The Chimney Sweeper's Boy has as a central plot device a moth of that name, more formally identified as Epichnopterix plumella, which represents the main character's transformation and identity.

Some of the areas covered: Wigan, Lowton, Atherton, Boothstown, Leigh, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Preston, Chorley, Adlington, Croston, Longton, Tarleton, Parbold, Eccleston, Ormskirk, Southport, Bolton, Westhoughton,