For approximately 200 years it was a common practice in England to use small boys (and sometimes girls) as chimney sweeps. It became widespread because of the Great Fire of London in 1666. The fire burned for 4 days and consumed 13,200 houses, 87 churches, St Paul's Cathedral and most of the city authority buildings. It is estimated that the fire destroyed 70,000 homes of the cities 80,000 inhabitants. The death toll is actually unknown but believed to be small as there is only 6 recorded deaths from the fire. However that number has been challenged by the fact that the deaths of the poor and middle-class people were not recorded and the heat from the fire may have very well cremated many victims leaving no recognizable remains.
After the fire, the city was rebuilt. Despite numerous radical proposals, London was reconstructed on essentially the same street plan used before the fire. (did they learn nothing?). Building regulations were changed and one of those changes indicated that fireplaces had to be built a certain way, with narrower chimneys; and it became more important to ensure that the chimneys were free of obstruction after a liberal amount of usage. This is how it became the life for generations of small boys (and girls) to be chimney sweeps.
The life of a chimney sweep child was a hard, cruel life full of the brutality of the real world. At the tender age of 6 yrs old (but sometimes as young as 4 yrs old!) these children were often sold to the master sweep because their parents were too poor to feed them. These children were also bought from the orphanages or were homeless children plucked from the streets and pressed into service. The child would become the property of the master sweep and was then almost certainly destined for a life of brutal living conditions and a slave like existence struggling to stay alive.
The chimney sweep child was taught to climb inside chimneys using elbows, their back and knees while holding a brush over his/her head. The soot would fall over the child's head and body to the bottom of the fireplace where the child was expected to collect it and give it to the master sweep.
Sometimes if the child was reluctant to wriggle into the tight spaces (more likely terrified) the master sweep would light a small fire under them or hold a lighted straw under their feet. They would also even poke them with pins to keep them moving.
Under the law the master sweep was supposed to provide the child with food, clothing, a bath and a place to live with the opportunity to attend church but there was no real enforcement of the laws. Many abuses took place and these children had no one to turn to so simply endured it. Some died of burns received inside hot chimneys; some became sickly from the living/working conditions and died; others were even beaten to death for not working fast enough.
Often the master sweep would scrub the child's knees with a wire brush and brine to harden them and they would remain seriously bloodied until calluses would form...or the child died of infection. They were woken up before dawn to go to work; received no wages; wore rags with no shoes year round and each day ran the risk of becoming stuck in a chimney either suffocating or burning to death or falling and being killed by the fall. Sometimes when they would get stuck another child would be sent up to rescue the first and they would both die for various reasons. On occasion walls would have to be taken down to remove children lodged in the flue.
Chimney sweeps usually slept in basements on top of blackened bags that were used to collect soot. They received very little food (to help keep them small) and because they were always hungry and lacking in basic necessities of life, they would beg from their customers. This was encouraged by the master sweep as anything given to the child was one less thing he had to pay for out of his pocket.
These children rarely washed and many worked naked so they spent most of their lives filthy from soot and grime. They often had lung problems and their eyes would become red and swollen from continual soot and debris falling into their face and eyes as well as breathing it in. Many of these poor children would become deformed and suffer stunted growth from working continually in small, cramped spaces in unnatural positions before their bones were fully formed. If these boys lived to adolescents they would sometimes form a painful cancer of the scrotum which was the first recorded form of industrial cancer and unique only to chimney sweeps. The cancer would first form as a painful sore with hard rising edges on the scrotum in their early teens. If the boy was lucky he'd notice it early and take even more painful measures to cut it out by hand. In this way he may be able to get rid of the cancer and live.
Assuming the child doesn't die from any of the daily hazards of his life, they rarely lived past middle age.
The death of 12 yr old George Brewster in 1875 was the catalyst that finally pushed through legislation outlawing children being used as chimney sweeps, although all efforts to stop it earlier had failed.
George Brewster became stuck in a chimney in Fullbourn Hospital (how ironic this should happen in a hospital where one is lead to expect life saving). His master, William Wyer, had sent him into the chimney. A wall had to be torn down to remove George. He died a short time later. Wyer was charged and found guilty of manslaughter. George Brewster was the last child chimney sweep in England to die in a chimney.
However, the practice of using children for chimney sweeps continued in other countries.
