Bristles and Brushes- The Health of the Chimney Sweep

As we look into the unpleasant facts of a chimney sweep’s life, it’s as dark and dirty as the flues they cleaned. Sweeps, some as young as four, lived short unloved lives performing dangerous work in deplorable conditions. The older a sweep ages, the more his profession takes.

In exchange for meager room and board, climbing boys risked their lives and lost their health. Horrific sores opened on their elbows and legs, rubbed raw from climbing and bracing up countless flues. Some master sweeps toughened their apprentice's young sensitive skin by brushing in brine (water mixed with salt) as they stood close to a warm fire. Working in a confined space with no air flow while purposefully stirring up contaminants in the air does no good for the bodies of growing children. A nasty fall from high up a flue crippled many sweeps for life, and some grew up deformed from the rigors of their work before their bones stopped growing. Disturbed soot particulates spread through the air, causing tears in inflamed eyes, and range of respiratory problems if frequently breathed in. If a sweep stuck and suffocated to death halfway up a flue, the bricks of the chimney had to be torn out to remove the body.

Outside of work, frequent beatings from the master sweep, malnutrition, and filthy living conditions destroyed an apprentice’s health further. By law, master sweeps must provide their apprentices with a bath once a week, but many went dirty for longer than a month. Particularly nasty sweeps never provided their charges with bedding, so many climbing boys slept in the bags they used to collect soot.

The constant accumulation of carcinogenic soot had little chance of being washed away. Years of exposure cursed most sweeps with large dark scrotal warts, known as “soot warts”. Soot warts often developed into cancer which spread fatally into the abdomen. More chimney sweeps contracted cancer than any other profession in London due to their daily exposure to soot. Percival Potts famously connected the sweep’s cancer to their occupational exposure in 1775, making public the easily avoided danger. The sweeps of continental Europe adopted tight-fitting, hooded body suits and daily baths, but English sweeps clung to their methodologies.

Adventure Ideas

Recently a number of child sweeps died in the chimneys of houses in the same community as a crusader against child labor. Boys looking remarkably similar to the dead sweeps have recently enrolled in a boys school.

Thaumaturgists, sigil scribes and petty mages often use fire as a key component to their spellcasting preparation. The sweeps hired to clean a magician’s chimney would contract more otherworldly ailments from soot sprinkled with magical particulates.

The nasty brine mixture rubbed into the apprentice’s skin could have a more supernatural quality. Civilizations all across the world use salt circles and salt water to keep fairies, evil spirits, ghosts, and other horrors at bay.  Is there something in the chimneys of London that would harm sweeps if not for the presence of salt water in the skin?

Enough of that. Next week, we move back into the fantastical side as we look at odd folklore and superstitions connected with sweeps.