One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 34 calling in the sweep again before another winter

The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*

Now the downside of open fires is that they have to be swept every year which when you have five can be a costly business, but it is just one of the things you have to do.

John** our sweep always suggests it should be done in the summer which after all spreads his work load, means that you are not living through the summer with sooty chimneys and prevents having to join a long queue.

And every year I resolve to do just this and every year I don’t.

This time it is a little different, for while we were away in the sun on a Greek island a bird got trapped in one of the flues and we are now plagued with flies.  That said once we had worked out the problem and sealed the fire place the flies no longer trouble us.

It is just one of those things that come with chimneys that are open to the heavens and it will be just something that Joe and Mary Ann took in their stride, as did everyone else during the last few centuries when wood and coal burning in an open grate was how to kept warm and cooked your food.

So the sweep was an important part of the landscape.

In 1911 there were sixty-three of them in the city and we had three.  Henry Thomas at number 3 Vicars Rd, Charles Morris, 12 Sandy Lane and Henry Thomas from 4 Brownhill Buildings, Sandy Lane.

Originally the job was done with brushes and I can still remember the sweep at home pushing the broom up and around the chimney, sweeping the soot clear until finally the brush appeared at top poking out of the chimney.

Now what I wasn’t quite prepared for was that John still uses a brush but of course today the actual business is done with a giant vacuum cleaner.  Quick, clean and pain free.

Like most people Joe and Mary Ann would have had their chimneys swept regularly, if for nothing else than to prevent the danger of a chimney fire which when I was growing up was still a feature of the winter.

Not that I think they used the open fires in the bedrooms, for the ceramic tiles do not look like they are fire proof, but then what do I know?

And that in a sense is the problem with the house.  I grew up with coal fires but by the time I was grown up they had pretty much gone out of fashion.  The coming of the smokeless zones in urban areas and cheap oil and gas central heating meant that the open fire just went out of fashion.

So when we reinstated the first in the 1980s it was a bit of a steep learning curve, and while it is all very straight forward those bed room fire places remain a mystery.


But I think the answer may be that by the time Joe and Mary Ann were here the electric fire had made an appearance.

The first was marketed in the USA in 1908 a full twelve years before the house was built.

Now I will need to do some research on this but I rather think if they were available they would have had them.

As early as the mid 1920s Joe was advertising that the houses he built came with electricity throughout including to the garage.

So given that no one spends that long in the bedroom without getting into bed maybe electricity was the answer.

All of which means they may never have been used.

That said I think we shall have all the upstairs ones swept as well as the two downstairs which will be a bit of history, because in the 37 years I have lived here they have never been done.

I await John’s comments.

Pictures; from the collection of Lois Elsden and Andrew Simpson

* The story of a house, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

**Acorn Chimney Sweeping Services, http://acornchimneysweepingservices.co.uk/contact