You are considered lucky if you shake the hand of a chimney sweep and although chimney sweeping is a dying trade, there are still a few sweeps around.
London Chimney Sweep is probably one of the oldest businesses in Roodepoort. It’s owned by Che Jagger. The company was established in 1896 by his step-great-great-grandfather as part of the PWV (Pretoria, Witwatersrand and Vereeniging) area.
“My step-great-great-granddad arrived in Johannesburg in 1896 and started working as a chimney sweep in the predominantly wealthy areas when Johannesburg was still a small town. Everyone had fireplaces. If you were dirt poor, you had a coal heater. Wealthy people had a fireplace and if you were stinking rich you had a fireplace in every room,” Che said. He added that some of those old houses still exist and some of them are still clients after all these years. “Some of the classic houses have up to seven chimneys and the amazing part is that I still get to clean them.”
Che’s step-great-great-grandfather’s son, Robert Lumley took over the business when anthracite heaters were very popular. Often, there was one in every room. “Robert married my grandmother after my grandfather died in World War II. His stepson, Peter Jagger, who is my father, was famous for cleaning anthracite heaters. Back then everyone had a Becker heater. Although they’re still in production, they aren’t as popular now. The main business came from the Closed Combustion System and my dad was famous for cleaning it.
“I remember as a kid seeing my dad come home pitch black. You could only see the whites of his eyes, and his teeth. My dad passed on in 2002 and I inherited the tools of the trade,” Che said.
Che says he never wanted to be a chimney sweep. “I am an academic and was a teacher at Discovery Primary School, but I am probably more famous for the karate I teach,” he laughed.
At the age of five, he was answering the business’ telephone, and by the time he was 15, he was already doing the donkey work like banking. “I have 120 years of family knowledge that I recycle every winter,” he said.
With only one extra pair of hands, Che is a very busy man and does most of the work himself. “Children were predominantly used to clean chimneys, but that practice was outlawed in about 1784, because the kids would get stuck and die inside the chimneys. Today we use special hand-made brushes on sticks or ropes. German chimney sweeps worked from the top down, while the English worked from the bottom up. Depending on the chimney, I sweep either way. However, it is more difficult today since roofs no longer have nice gantries to walk along. It can be very a dangerous job. I remember my father used to walk on tiny walkways and hop onto the edges of the buildings that were about 15 storeys up.”
Che said every day is a new challenge and every job is a new puzzle. “The main reason why you should have your chimney cleaned is the massive fire hazard that results if you don’t. A chimney sweep brings luck to households because he sweeps away last year’s problems (soot). Folk lore says the Germans used to rub the shoulders of chimney sweeps or steal the buttons off their jackets for good luck. If your chimney is clean, your house is unlikely to burn down.”
Some interesting things found in chimneys are beehives, bird’s nests, rats, bats and sometimes bricks. “And of course the occasional hammer. And newspapers – the oldest newspaper I’ve found was from 1968.”
Che said he is forced to make his own brushes today and he has to continually improvise and adapt his tools.
“My step-great-great-granddad used to sell the soot, which is pure carbon, to the explosive works in Modderfontein. The soot was added to the gunpowder or black powder used to make ammunition. Soot stains everything and during winter my hands are usually pitch black,” he laughed.
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