What It Was Really Like Being An Old-Timey Chimney Sweep

In spite of the fact that many master sweeps deliberately underfed their apprentices so they remained small, they definitely got stuck: a lot.

One slip, says Owlcation, could result in the child's legs getting stuck beneath them, wedging the apprentice in the chimney. If that happened, another apprentice was sometimes sent up to tie a rope around their legs and try to pull them out. That risked the loss of two sweeps because there are instances of both boys dying inside the chimney.

Suffocation was a very real danger, too, either from falling soot or from becoming wedged too tightly in the chimney to be able to breathe. Burns were also a common cause of death, along with falling from rooftops. The chimney sweep's busiest season was usually around the holidays when people were preparing for Christmas parties, and the cold, damp weather played havoc with already aching joints, with an even greater risk. 

Think it can't get worse? It can! According to The Local Chimney Sweep, when a child did die in a chimney, recovering the body sometimes meant breaking a hole through the wall and chimney, and that was up to the homeowner to decide whether or not they wanted to do it. Sometimes, a careless master wouldn't even notice their apprentice had gotten stuck or died, and the sweep would be left to starve or burn to death when the fire was lit, per London's Pulse Projects.

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