“Soon as dined, I and Moone away, and walked, through the City, the streets full of nothing but people and horses and carts loaden with goods, ready to run over one another, and, removing goods from one burned house to another.” - Samuel Pepys
The Great Fire of London, began on the 2nd of September 1666 and burned until the 5th of September, it is the worst fire in London’s history. It destroyed a large part of the City of London, including most of the civic buildings, old St. Paul’s Cathedral, 87 parish churches and 13,200 houses. However, only 6 deaths were recorded. The fire originated in a bakery shop owned by Thomas Farriner and was well documented in the famous diary of Samuel Pepys who gave a first-hand account of the event. Due to the fire, building codes were quickly changed. The new law required chimneys to be much narrower than they had been previously. The implementation of the new building laws were successful in reducing the risk of fire. However, the ramifications of the new narrower flues, set in motion a long and dark period of history that is often overlooked. Due to the new design, keeping the chimneys free of obstruction became quite difficult. The flue was only 18 inches in width and made it essentially impossible for grown men or women to do the job. With this came the prominence of child chimney sweeps. Despite, deaths, extreme ill health and obvious disfigurement as well as public outcry from the families of the children in the interim, the exploitation of children for their labour in this position lasted close to two hundred years. It wasn’t until the introduction of a flexible cleaning mechanism by American inventor and anti-child labour campaigner Joseph Glass in 1828 and his help in the implementation of the ‘Chimney Sweepers’ and Chimneys Regulation Act’ in 1840 did it become illegal for anyone under 21 to work as a chimney sweep.
The dangers of chimney sweeping were well known and widely acknowledged and as such there were few people willing to accept the risks the job entailed. However, the newly designed chimneys needed to be maintained. Unscrupulous people in the chimney sweeping trade got creative and soon realized they could circumvent the issue by buying orphans from the local parish or by purchasing children from poverty stricken parents. The families that were targeted were ones that were at the lowest rungs of the economic ladder and were in sever financial distress. The experienced or qualified chimney sweeper knows as the ‘Master’ sweeper would offer money to the struggling families for one or more of their children. The families’ expectation was that the child would learn a trade and become the Master’s ‘Apprentice’ and therefor, live a better life than the family could provide for the child at that time. The price of a child ranged at the time from 7 shillings to 4 guineas. The ideal age to buy the child so they could begin their apprenticeship was 6 years old. The transaction was a one off and no further monies were exchanged.
The apprentice was not paid and even though they were titled as an ‘Apprentice’ chimney sweep, they were for all intents and purposes a slave. The deal, bound the child to their master until adulthood. The bulk of a chimney sweeps job was to climb up the flue with a large brush over there head. The flues were incredibly narrow so it was common for the child to complete their work naked. As they moved through the flue they would knock loose soot to the ground, which they would collect after the job was complete. It was then resold by the master at a profit. Soot was sold to farmers as fertilizer mainly, but was used for other things like shoe polish and toothpaste. Victorians believed for a time that soot made your teeth white, however, this was likely a misunderstanding as the chimneys sweep’s teeth looked much whiter due to them being covered in soot. The soot trade was an enormous business in Victorian Britain.
Under law, the Masters did have some obligations the were required to bestow on the children. They were supposed to teach the apprentice the craft, feed them, give them clothes, shelter and allow them to attend church among other things. How well, any of this things were enforced is not well documented. However, it is documented that after a seven-year apprenticeship, the sweep could graduate to ‘Journeyman’ and eventually they could go and work for a Master of their choice.
The working conditions of a Victorian child chimney sweep were horrific. Due to this asthma and other breathing related ailments were common. As were sores and other inflammations on the eyelids. As well as this, in almost every case the job would stunt the child’s growth. The work required the sweepers to remained crouched in unnatural positions inside the tight chimneys. This would damage their growing bones and joints. A later study would show that the knees and ankles were the most heavily affected areas. Furthermore, the job itself would have been particularly frightening for the children. If the child was taking too long to complete a certain job, it was common for their master to light a fire at the base of the chimney so that the heat and the smoke now rising up the chimney flue would encourage the sweep to work faster. This is where the saying ‘someone lit a fire under him/her’ originated.
Obviously, inside the flues are pitch black and the chimneys were incredibly claustrophobic. They were often confusing to navigate on account of the inherent darkness. Moreover, even if the child was small enough to get into the chimney flue they were required to clean there was no guarantee they would be able to get back out. The chimneys were often built in rows along the sides of buildings and their flues often merged together at points in their structure. A chimney sweep that climbed from the beginning of the flue all the way to the roof to clean it, could very easily return down the incorrect flue. Additionally, a sweep could take the correct flue but take a wrong turn at an interconnected point on the way back down. Sweeps who entered the wrong chimney or got lost in the flues, could suffocate or burn to death.
Many young chimney sweeps were fatally lost in the darkness. If a sweep did get stuck in a chimney, the standard operating procedure was to either let him/her perish or send in a second sweep to try and rescue the first child. These rescues were often unsuccessful and in such cases both sweepers would be lost. If this was the case, the house or the walls of the building would be torn down so that they could be removed. Eventually, a bill was passed in 1788 called the ‘Chimney Sweeper’s Act’ but it wasn’t properly enforced and therefore, largely ignored. George Smart invented a mechanical chimney sweep in 1803. In the early 1800’s there were many deaths in the trade. Common sense would bring one to the conclusion that this invention would be lauded, unfortunately, it too was ignored.
An improved sweeping mechanism was introduced in 1828 by an anti-child labour campaigner named Joseph Glass. This basic, yet ingenious device consisted of cane rods connected by brass interlocking joints, the final product was a flexible wand that was capable of navigating the complex flues. The device, which Glass didn’t patent was approved by the government. In 1829 Robert Peel ordered it to be used in all government buildings. More acts were introduced and amended in the intervening years. In 1824 the ‘Chimney Sweeper’s Act’ was introduced largely under the testimony of Joseph Glass. This law prohibited the Masters from hiring any boys under the age of 14 to become an apprentice. Progress was being made, but protection for the children was still insufficient. Finally, in 1840 the ‘Chimney Sweepers’ and Chimneys Regulation Act’ made it illegal for anyone under 21 to work as a chimney sweep.
However, the trade continued surreptitiously for another 35 years until 1875. In February of that year, George Brewster, a 12-year-old chimney sweep, became the last child in England to die on the job. William Wyer his master, sent him into the Fulbourn Hospital chimneys, where he got stuck. A wall was pulled down in a desperate attempt to rescue him, but he died a shortly after his rescue. Wyer was charged with manslaughter due to public indignation. In September of 1875, a bill was pushed through which eliminated the practice of using children as chimney sweeps entirely and it required adults who wished to continue in the trade to be licensed to do so by the police. Joseph Glass’s invention is still used today.
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