Now this is a rather majestic piece of thatched statuary, this soring golden eagle. This is another fine example of the master thatcher’s craft by Clive Dodson, Master Thatcher of Cambridgeshire. I think it is amazing that with just a bit of straw he has been able to capture the movement of flight in this awesome bird of prey. From where I’m looking this eagle looks like its just about to take off and burst into flight as it spreads its wings. Truly terrific.

The golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) is one of the best-known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. These birds are dark brown, with lighter golden-brown plumage on their napes. Immature eagles of this species typically have white on the tail and often have white markings on the wings. Golden eagles use their agility and speed combined with powerful feet and massive, sharp talons to snatch up a variety of prey, mainly hares, rabbits, and marmots and other ground squirrels. Golden eagles maintain home ranges or territories that may be as large as 200 km² (77 sq mi). They build large nests in cliffs and other high places to which they may return for several breeding years. Most breeding activities take place in the spring; they are monogamous and may remain together for several years or possibly for life. Females lay up to four eggs, and then incubate them for six weeks. Typically, one or two young survive to fledge in about three months. These juvenile golden eagles usually attain full independence in the fall, after which they wander widely until establishing a territory for themselves in four to five years.

Once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many areas which are now more heavily populated by humans. Despite being extirpated from or uncommon in some of its former range, the species is still widespread, being present in sizeable stretches of Eurasia, North America, and parts of North Africa. It is the largest and least populous of the five species of true accipitrid to occur as a breeding species in both the Palearctic and the Nearctic.

For centuries, this species has been one of the most highly regarded birds used in falconry. Due to its hunting prowess, the golden eagle is regarded with great mystic reverence in some ancient, tribal cultures. It is one of the most extensively studied species of raptor in the world in some parts of its range, such as the Western United States and the Western Palearctic.

Here is a selection of Golden Eagle poems I found on the internet:

The Golden Eagle by Victor Buhagiar

His majesty the Golden Eagle

symbol of power, freedom.

It scales high up over the lake

and surrounding vegetation.

It glides around at leisurely speed,

its huge eyes scanning carefully

from its azure world as below there’s tasty prey.

Behold on the fragrant magnolias trees,

big and small birds can be seen.

Around the silky dogwood shrubs,

mice scuttle around,

while around the lake,

long fat fish abound,

Occasionally jumping out of the water,

scales shining attracting attention.

The eagle is satisfied,

there’s plenty to feed its young.

I particularly like this Golden Eagle poem by Denis Martindale

The golden eagle, what a sight!
Across the pond, they know!
A wondrous creature when in flight,
Its silhouette aglow!
Just like an arrow cross the sky,
Angelic-like above,
The kind of bird Man questions why
This life seems not enough…

Yet viewed up close, designs are known,
Each eye that sees so far,
Each feather there so that he’s flown
As if from Earth to star!
With claws to help him land as well,
The mountain face to grip,
So that he’s like a miracle
That’s never meant to slip…

The golden eagle still inspires,
He’s known the whole world wide,
A brilliant bird that one admires,
Regarding each with pride…
Prospectors understand gold’s worth,
Romantics comprehend,
Like eagles that have blessed this Earth,
Let’s soar like eagles, friend!

The Golden Eagle by Mumtaz

How majestic is the sight
Of an eagle taking flight.

Ah! The golden eagle soars high
winging around the azure sky.

Insolently , swiftly flew,
Far below  roared the oceans blue.

Perched on the mountains tower,
Braved the storms by his power.

Like an aeroplane he glides
With wide open wings he slides.

Explores from heights with keen eyes,
circling the infinite skies.

There are not many of these old style Jotul 602N Wood-Burning Stove these days although Jotul still manufacture them as an eco stove, the F602. I do see a few of these about with their characteristic crosshatched glass front, but I have only ever seen one with the compass type air control on the front door as in this example. Jotul have been making this stove model for an incredibly long time, with it first going into production in 1940. The customer told me that this particular stove has a long history and was in fact originally in his parents home in Bavaria Germany. He said that he had it shipped all the way from Germany then installed into his own house, where it is still going strong!

Jotul are a Norweigan company and have been making stoves and fireplaces for over 160 years. Jotul are proud of their global status, selling their products in 43 different countries spread over six continents – Truly a global brand!

Jøtul was founded by Oluf Onsum as Kværner Jernstøberi (Kværner Foundry) in the outskirts of Christiania (now Oslo) in 1853. While stoves initially were the main products, the company had diversified by the beginning of the 20th century, when it produced turbines and lumber equipment.

As the heating appliance manufacture decreased in importance, the production was spun off in 1916 and sold to Herman Anker, one of Kværner’s managers. He founded Jøtul AS in 1920 as a sales organization for its products. The sales stagnated during the depression in the 1920s, and 36-year-old Herman Anker died in 1927, leaving it to his successor, 34-year-old Johannes Gahr to modernize and eventually salvage the company. By 1935, the turnaround had succeeded, and the firm acquired its modern name.

By the 1960s, stoves using liquid fuels, especially kerosene had supplanted wood-burning appliances, a trend that was only reversed in the 1970s, partly due to the 1973 oil crisis. Jøtul used this opportunity to gain a strong international foothold and drastically increased its exports to continental Europe and North America.

The Gahr family sold the business to Norcem in 1977, and a period of international expansion began, as Jøtul acquired a number of foundries and importers abroad. This period lasted for approximately ten years, but came to an end during the recession in the late 1980s, when Jøtul once again focussed on the domestic market. However, it has resumed its international diversification in the 21st century, and today its products are sold worldwide.

In March 2018, Jøtul was acquired by the global private equity firm OpenGate Capital. Along with management, OpenGate has crafted a plan to boost performance and eliminate inefficiencies in Jøtul’s operations. In addition, OpenGate Capital is actively searching for add-on targets to further drive Jøtul’s growth. In November 2018, OpenGate and Jøtul completed the add-on acquisition of AICO, an Italian and French based pellet-burning stove leader.

https://www.jotul.co.uk/

I recently completed the HETAS Chimney Sweeps 5 Year Refresher & Technical Update Course and have the certificate to prove it! It was a day long course completed at the H Firkins Training Centre in Milton Keynes and there were 8 other sweeps undertaking the course along with myself. The course was packed with lots of interesting material and updates as a lot has changed in the short time since I undertook the chimney sweeping 5 year refresher training course with the guild. Updates included advice about safe Covid working practices, risk assessments and procedures for customers who are currently shielding. Somethings were just nuggets of information or practicle advise I had not previously heard about.

There were also a number of technical updates, providing useful information on recent changes. These included an update on the new DEFRA rated stoves and their installation, information on what should be done with old redundant back boilers. There was technical information on rear flued appliances and the differing ways they can be completed outside of Approved Document J (Technical bulletins BS EN 15287 & BS 8303). There was in addition a section on documentation that should be carried whilst working including how to complete a Method statement, COSHH Documentation and RIDDOR forms. A very useful and informative days training.

Here is something unusual that I just had to include in my blog, this is a Wamslea 900 Solid Fuel Range that I swept recently in a house in Stocking Green. Unfortunately, it had a rather tricky factory made chimney arrangement with an internal soot collection trap, which made it very awkward to sweep and as it was extremely sooty, difficult to keep the soot out of the room – I managed it though!

Interestingly, the customer told me that it is the only range cooker in production that stays cold to the tough when it is in operation, he said that he specifically bought this range for that reason when his children were very young. No burnt fingers in this house! This said he had to get the stove shipped directly from Bavaria in Germany where these stoves are manufactured as 20 years ago, they were not available in the UK. However, a quick search on the internet reveals that a number of different range models in many different colours are now available on the UK market through a number of dealerships.

I just had to include this photograph of two little helpers giving me all their assistance at an address in Belchamp Otten, I thought it was so amusing, and I hope you do too! This is Teddy and Ellie (their full names being Theodore and Elanor Roosevelt), they are long haired Dachshunds and they are very friendly and inquisitive, as you can see. Their owner tells me that although they live in a house with three women, they actually crave male attention, and if anything, they are a man’s dogs, hence their attention to me! And there’s me thinking it’s my animal magnetism! All said and done they did make both me and Claire laugh and brought smiles to our faces for the rest of the day, even though it was really rainy!

This is in addition a good example of me using a special sweeping tool of German invention, a large Viper. The Viper is essentially rods on a reel with a brush on the end of it. It is ideal for sweeping lined appliances and different size brushes can be used to deal with different diameter liners. It only down fall is that it can only bee used on straight up and down chimneys as the brush can not be turned to negotiate bends. Useful bit of kit none the less.

I saw this sad but rather interesting story on the Guild of Master Sweeps website this week and thought I would share it. On 11^th February 1875, George Brewster was forced by his master to climb and clean a chimney at what was then the County Pauper Lunatic Asylum in Fulbourn (3 miles from Cambridge city centre). 15 minutes after entering the chimney, George became stuck. In an attempt to rescue him, an entire wall was pulled down. He was eventually pulled from the chimney but died shortly after.

The use of ‘climbing boy’ chimney sweeps was not uncommon in Britain up to the Victorian age, and attempts had been made to outlaw the use of children to clean chimneys but the practice continued. The death of George Brewster in 1875 was extraordinary, changing Britain forever. George’s inquest was reported in the national press and when the 7^th Earl of Shaftesbury read about the boy’s tragic death, he vowed to make a change. George’s death was the catalyst enabling the Earl to get another Act passed by Parliament in September 1875 that succeeded in stopping children from being used as ‘climbing boys’ in England and ending a 35 year-long campaign led by the Earl.

George Brewster was the last ‘climbing boy’ to die in England, but his death was also part of a much greater transformation of British industrial society that saw the end of all child labour practices in other industries such as farming, mining and in factories. Just a year later, in 1876, it was recommended that education be made compulsory in the UK for all children. And then, in 1880, a further Education Act finally made school attendance compulsory.

In 2019, Joanna Hudson from Pampisford (Cambridgeshire) stumbled upon George Brewster’s little-known story and was inspired to launch a campaign to tell his remarkable story and to honour his legacy. Joanna conducted extensive research into George’s life and death to support her application to the Cambridge & District Blue Plaque Scheme and even discovered the location of George’s grave. Joanna Hudson said: “When you realise the momentous turning point George Brewster’s death brought to changing child labour laws in Britain, you realise how important his story is and how vital it is that we share it with everyone. Every child should know this boy’s name, as he represents the countless children who were victims of greed and cruelty in the Victorian era, exploited by those who valued profit over their welfare. “George Brewster deserves our recognition. I launched this campaign to remind people of the sacrifice and extreme working conditions Victorian children endured.  Today offers a powerful reminder of how far we have come since those dark days. We shouldn’t take our child labour rights for granted. It took the tragic death of one of our own Cambridgeshire children to change the law that all children now enjoy.”

Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, 12th Earl of Shaftesbury and direct descendant of the 7^th Earl who pushed through the law 150 years ago, said: “During his life, the 7th Earl campaigned tirelessly to help the downtrodden and neglected in society. Perhaps no other cause captured his attention more than the plight of the chimney sweeps’ boys. It was a cause that took him 35 years of campaigning to finally bring to an end. It is a tragedy that George and so many others were not saved by the change in the law, but this plaque will ensure he is never forgotten.”

Lawson Wight, Chairman of the Guild of Master Chimney Sweeps said: “George’s story was not well known among today’s chimney sweeps – it will be now. This unique blue plaque will help raise awareness of a time of great change. It’s important to understand the history and how tireless political campaigning and a tragic event have changed all of our lives for the better. Every modern sweep will have found it a sobering thought that many of the chimneys they sweep were once worked by climbing boys’.

The Friends of Mill Road Cemetery (FOMRC) in Cambridge helped Joanna to find George’s final resting place. On a cold Monday in November 2019, they battled through a thicket of brambles, found his unmarked grave and laid some flowers. The award is the culmination of a six-year campaign led by mother-of-two and amateur local historian, Joanna Hudson, supported by Longfellow Real Estate Partners, the Guild of Master Chimney Sweeps, Friends of Mill Road Cemetery, the Museum of Cambridge and the 12th Earl of Shaftesbury.

I recently saw this photograph taken in 1972 of a part demolished tenement block in Kelvinhaugh Street Glasgow. It is of interest because at a glance it shows how chimneys are constructed and how they remain separate, whilst feathering into a single chimney stack. It is a frequent misconception of customers that multiple fireplaces in a premises all join together to form one large chimney, that is where this photograph is useful in displacing that notion and informing them of what is actually going on in their house. It is also very instructive in showing how chimneys can have multiple turns in them, as many people think chimneys just run straight up and down. Looking at the lower chimneys in the Glasgow building, they have three turns in them. When manually sweeping the turns present the sweep with a challenge as the sweep has to constantly turn the brush to get it to go around the turn in the chimney. The sweep uses a technique to bend and turn the rod in a clockwise direction to get the brush to negotiate the turn. It is the torque in the rod that turns the brush and advances it up the chimney. It is this technique that also stops the brush undoing in the chimney.

 I sweep many, many of the old Parkray multi-fuel room heaters across the area, particularly in the old Braintree District council houses that I sweep for Eastlight Community Homes. We have been working our contract with Eastlight Community Homes for over 5 years now and it involves over 200 sweeps annually, many of which are Parkray Multi-Fuel Room Heaters. However, I have not come across one of these, a double-door Parkray. I therefore thought that as it was so unusual, it would make an interesting blog. The vast majority of the Parkrays I sweep have the classic single door look, although if you look back through my blogs, you will see a couple of examples of Bronze coloured Art Deco examples.

Parkray have been the leading name in solid fuel stoves for more than a century, producing heating components since 1850. Originally known as ‘Park Foundry’, the company quickly became the leading name in solid fuel appliances. Today, Parkray is based near Exeter in Devon. Parkray room heaters have been in existence for over 40 years, some of the older applainces (some 20, 30, 40 years old or in some cases even older) are still in existence and used daily by households all over the UK.  This is a testament to the build quality of some of these earlier Parkray models. As there are so many models and sizes of the Parkray, they can look very similar, however, the parts inside of them are different.  Some parts fit many appliances and others are more specific.

We wish all our customers and friends a Peaceful and Very Happy Christmas! And a Happy and prosperous New Year.

We hope you all have a great time over the Christmas period and get everything you desire from Santa! Also, it is time to make the most of your wood-burning stoves, open fires and inglenooks to create that real festive atmosphere.

I couldn’t resist posting this picture of a Christmas card we received from our lovely neighbour Wendy. I believe the joke is that it’s an artist’s impression of me and Claire out sweeping before we could afford a van!! It did make us laugh! There is even one of our dogs in the basket at the front.

Our last working day before Christmas is Monday 23^rd December – Claire and I will then be having a much-needed rest with the family. Goodbye to 6 and 7 days a week working for a few days!

We will next be working in the New Year; starting on Thursday 2^nd January and our lead time for appointments is the beginning of May 2025.

Happy Christmas to everyone from Paddy and Claire at Walden Sweeps and wishing you a very happy and prosperous New Year!

 Here is a salutary tale from Thaxted this week about the need to have a chimney regularly swept – A barn conversion caught fire and lost most of its roof when soot deposits in the chimney caught fire and spread to the loft space. The soot had apparently collected in the top part of the chimney as the chimney had not been swept for some time. People don’t realise that if a chimney catches fire and the have not had it swept annually by a reputable trades person and they therefore have not been issued with an annual Safety Certificate, then the insurance company is unlikely to pay out for any damage caused.

Essex Fire Brigade report:

Firefighters are reminding residents to check and clean their chimneys regularly after a fire caused significant damage to a timber-framed home in Thaxted this evening (Wednesday 11 December).

Crews from Thaxted, Saffron Walden, Newport and Braintree, along with an Aerial Ladder Platform from Chelmsford, were called to the property at 5:20pm after the homeowners noticed part of the interior wall had collapsed, revealing a fire inside the chimney.

The fire, which was caused by a build up of soot and debris in the chimney, quickly spread through the loft space and roof due to the timber-framed structure of the house.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus worked to tackle the fire from inside the home, while crews on the Aerial Ladder Platform extinguished the flames from above. Thanks to their efforts, they successfully contained the fire and prevented further spread.

Station Manager Kev Jenner said:
“Our crews worked incredibly hard in challenging conditions to stop the fire from spreading further through the property. Thankfully, the family escaped without injury, but the roof has been significantly damaged, and there is smoke and water damage throughout the home.

“This incident highlights the importance of regularly maintaining and cleaning your chimney, especially in older, timber-framed properties, where fire can spread rapidly.”

The fire was fully extinguished by 8:15pm, but crews will remain at the scene into the night to monitor for hotspots and make sure the area is safe.

Chimney Safety Advice

To reduce the risk of chimney fires, follow these tips:

• Have your chimney swept at least once a year, or more frequently if you burn wood.
• Avoid burning resinous woods; use only suitable seasoned timber in solid fuel stoves.
• Do not stack fires too high and allow them to burn down well before you go to bed.
• Use a fire or spark guard to prevent embers from escaping.
• Inspect your chimney regularly—particularly in the roof space—to check for cracks or broken bricks.

For more safety tips, visit essex-fire.gov.uk/chimney.