Finding myself unemployed, with no-one recognising my brilliance as a university dropout I cast my eyes about to see what I could turn my hand to in order to make a living. I looked at this and that and finally someone mentioned that they had to wait 6 months or more in order to get their chimney swept. I pricked up my ears at this, as any profession with an extended waiting list looked like one where there was far more work than workers, and thus easier to break into.

So, I bought the basic gear, and put out some adverts. For those of you that think me a tad reckless, remember that in those days there was no training for sweeps, no professional organisation, and for sure none of your potential competitors was about to offer to train you.

So out I went on my first job, and let’s be honest, I did make a pig’s ear of it. Even the customer spotted it was my first attempt, and I ended up making a bit of a mess of it. So, I went home, had a good long shower and resolved that if I was going to stay in this line of work, I was going to have to improve things radically. At the time though I didn’t realise that I was going to do the same to the profession.

So, I gritted my teeth, stuck to it and got better. I got better equipment, got better at sweeping, and started signing on to every training course that the then Solid Fuel Advisory Service offered. At one of those I encountered a generous spirited sweep from a different area, who was a cocky so-and- so, if only because he had a much better grasp on the profession than the rest of us put together. Everyone else there was muttering about him and his confident attitude, so I went up to him and asked him if I could come out with him for a day. He grinned at me and a long lasting friendship was born. Bernard took me out, showed me all he knew, and we bounced ideas off each other until we had devised a method of sweeping chimneys cleanly that worked better than anything else around.

When we discovered NACS, I joined that and treated everyone there who showed any aptitude exactly as I did Bernard. I picked their brains raw, and added every useful fact and technique to my growing arsenal of tactics to be used against the more recalcitrant chimneys. Every time we came across an ‘impossible’ chimney I would make sure that I found ways around the problems, delighting in being able to sweep chimneys that no-one else could. We devised specialist equipment, and studied all the available texts relating to structure and function of chimneys and flues, reasoning that knowledge of the enemy was our greatest weapon. Sadly though in this we realised that all too often the builders and architects responsible for the chimneys we were sweeping actually knew far less than we did about the subject.

I grabbed the chance to become the European representative for NACS, and at last found in the German and European systems a dedication to detail, qualification and practice that far outstripped my own, and I returned to the UK fired with determination to drag British chimney sweeping into the light of day. Trouble was that not everyone shared my enthusiasm, and in order to try and achieve what I wanted, I had to leave NACS and start up an organisation that was far more fanatical about standards and qualifications, and the qualification I had my sights on was the City & Guilds. After all, C&G was always the gold standard.

To do this, first I had to get qualified in training and assessment, and go through the laborious and expensive process of creating a qualification that would become the very first nationally recognised qualification for chimney sweeps. It had to be that good, because I had seen that in house qualifications tended to be compromised and lack validity. Well, I succeeded, and the qualification that I created has been used throughout the industry, and is at the core of the NVQ which is the only other National qualification for sweeps. So, I suppose that I can add that to my résumé.

In all, I have come quite a way from that first job, sitting in a puddle of soot, and wondering if I hadn’t made a terrible mistake in venturing into such uncharted waters.

Bil Wight receiving a Life Time Achievement Award from the Guild of Master Chimney Sweeps 2010