Somerset Chimney Sweeps give a brief history on the methods of Chimney Sweeping in the earlier centuries.

Chimney Sweeps- Learning From History
It is often truly stated that the West has been guilty of actions more disturbing than exploiting children for camel racing. It is certainly worthwhile looking at the plight of chimney sweeps in Victorian Britain as there are many parallels to learn from.

Fires and Cleaning Chimneys
As a fire burns to warm a house, soot is produced. Some of this fine powder escapes to the atmosphere, some is deposited on the inside of the chimney. For a chimney to work efficiently, this soot must be removed. Access to a chimney is restricted by its size. Most chimneys can only be cleaned by either very small people or by using special equipment. In seventeenth and eighteenth century Britain, small people were the cheaper option.

Chimney Sweeps as a Job
Orphaned children as young as four were sold by orphanages to master sweeps to clean the chimneys. It was also legal to capture vagrant, homeless children and force them into slavery. The children would be sent up into a chimney to clean the soot from the chimney walls with their hands or with scrapers. It was normal for the children to become scared and reluctant to climb. Common practice was to light a small fire using straw or paper in the fire place to force the chimney sweep to the top.

The Risks of Sweeping Chimneys
The value and usefulness of a chimney sweep depended on his or her size. The ideal chimney sweep would be young and poorly fed. Every day they risked becoming stuck in a narrow chimney, being choked, or falling to their death. Breathing problems, cancer and deformed limbs were long term risks. Physical and mental injury would have been common.