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Recollections Chimney Sweeps |
Recollections |
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1. |
Bob Sinclair |
Eddie and Julie |
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2. |
Bob Henderson |
Keepsake |
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3. |
Jim Vandepeear |
East Preston Street - On the Roof - Finding the Fireplace - In the House - Problems |
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4. |
Brian |
My Uncle Paddy Calls: 'Woo-ooo' and 'Pee-hee' |
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5. |
Howard Street - 'Weep!' - Wrong Chimney |
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Recollections 1. Bob Sinclair Queensland, Australia |
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Thank you to Bob Sinclair, now living in Queensland, Australia, who wrote: |
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Eddie and Julie "My uncle Eddie was, he reckoned, the first chimney sweep in Edinburgh. He used to go out with his wife, Julie, to sweep lums. At one call, they had a joint chimney at the top which serviced two houses. One neighbour, on hearing that the woman next door was getting her lum swept, asked my uncle to do hers at the same time. Both women left the key with another woman on the same landing. My uncle collected both keys and let his wife into one of the houses and made his way up to the roof. His method was to tie a brick or stone on a rope and drop the brick down the chimney where my aunt would wait with a catcher to collect the soot. He would shout 'Ah Hoo' down the lum and she would reply in like manner indicating that they had the right chimney. The trouble with a chimney stack which services two houses is that you can hear the reply fairly well. But if you don't turn the vent plate the right way or forget to turn it when you've finished the first chimney, the soot comes out in the wrong hoose. Well auntie did her Al Jolson impression when he came down, but it wasn't in song. Bob Sinclair, Queensland, Australia: January 21, 2010 |
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Recollections 2. Bob Henderson Burdiehouse, Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Bob Henderson who wrote: |
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Keepsake "I found this keepsake at the back of my hut today. I wonder if the oldies will guess what it is. Bob Henderson, Burdiehouse, Edinburgh: May 18, 2010 |
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Please click on the thumbnail image above to see the answer. |
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Recollections 3. Jim Vandepeear York, Yorkshire, England |
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Here are more recollections of a chimney sweep. I originally added these recollections to the East Preston Street page on the EdinPhoto web site in December 2006. I've now also added these recollections below to continue the theme of chimney sweeps on this page. Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: September 2013 Jim wrote: |
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East Preston Street "There were 32 chimneys to the tenement where we lived in East Preston Street.. Each stack had 12 chimney pots. All the chimneys merged as they went upwards in the building." On the Roof "The chimney sweeps would divide, one to the house and fireplace, the other up a ladder at the top of the stairway, a drop of about 80feet below him. Then a hatch and perilous climb up the sloping tiles to the chimneys. The sweep on the roof had a long rope, with heavy weights, about 4 inches in diameter near the end, and a large stiff circular brush attached above the weights. The weighted rope, with brush, was dropped down the chimney." Finding the Fireplace "To get brush and weight from chimney to the desired fireplace: - The roof man bellows down the flue, a long ‘WOOO,ooo,ooo!’ - The fireplace man replies ‘WAAA.aaa,aaa!’. - Roof man jiggles the rope and weights at each junction in the flue, until the fireplace man calls ‘WOOO,ooo,ooo!’. ‘WOOO,ooo,ooo!’ the right signal, and the roof man knows the brush is at the right fireplace. Fireplace man knows if brush has the correct flue by the amount of soot and debris falling where he is." In the House "The fireplace was prepared by draping a heavy cloth over and around, weighted into place, to allow the soot to settle, hopefully, behind the cloth. The room cleared of nearly all furniture beforehand. Long before the chimney is pronounced clean, the room and the sweep have inch deep coats of soot. When the cloth was removed from the fireplace, the sweep shovelled the soot into blackened sacks and carried them away. The fire would be re-lit and Gran would spend the rest of the day cleaning up." Problems "And all this Woo-ing and Waa-ing is inaccurate. A neighbour in the tenement, or in the adjoining tenement, having their chimney swept could cause soot and debris to come down into our fireplace or even into Gran’s cooking pots. Sweeps' weights were heavy. Once, several bricks, plus soot, arrived in our kitchen fireplace when the sweeps were in the adjoining tenement, interrupting our meal." Jim Vandepeear, York, Yorkshire, England: December 10, 2006 |
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Recollections 4. Brian near Edinburgh |
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Thank you to Brian, who wrote: |
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My Uncle Paddy "Tonight, I came across the Chimney Sweeps recollections above - fascinating! My Uncle Paddy was a chimney sweep. I always heard tales in our family about the cries the sweeps used. 'Woo-ooo' and 'Pee-hee' "I've never heard of the 'Woo-ooo' as quoted by others. I understood that it was 'Pee-hee' (shouted down the chimney from the roof and 'Pee-hee-hee' (the reply called up to confirm the correct fireplace was being covered, with that terrible, sooty cloth supposed to catch the debris as the ball and brush was dropped down the flue." Brian, near Edinburgh: September 5, 2013 |
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Recollections 5. Allan Dodds Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England |
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Thank you to Allan Dodds who wrote: |
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Howard Street 'Weep!' "Chimney sweeps evidently had their own local 'dialects' of calls. Ours, in Howard Street, was "Weep!" This word was exchanged between the sweep on the rooftop and his assistant within the tenement flat below." Wrong Chimney! "Sometimes communications failed, and there was nothing worse than the ball and brush descending of a morning, uninvited and unannounced, within the grate to the surprise and consternation of those below who might have been innocently toasting a breakfast slice of bread over a few dying embers from the night before!" Allan Dodds, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England: September 15, 2013 |