It’s a few months ago now that a lady customer called me to her farmhouse outside Hempstead, because her stove wasn’t working properly. She told me that the woodburning stove just wasn’t drawing properly, she was having difficulty getting it lit and when it was a light the room quickly filled with smoke. Straight away it sounds like some kind of blockage in the flue.

The blockage was actually found very easily, when I dropped the baffle (Throat Plate) to examine the flue. Wedged between the baffle and the mouth of the flue was the dead jackdaw in the photograph. Having removed this, I then swept the chimney as usually, removing only a small quantity of nest material, i.e. a few small twigs etc. I then smoke tested the flue to ensure that it was clear of all blockages and was working correctly.

The poor old Jackdaw must have fallen down the flue when right at the start of his/her nest building enterprise and got stuck at the bottom of the flue. At least the customer was pleased that the solution to her problem was so simple.