9. Chimney sweeper

Chimney sweeper hasn’t become completely extinct. There are still some chimney cleaners who would come to your house and clean the chimney using traditional way, the process has largely been taken over by mechanical devices. In fact, there are very little chimney’s left these days, they have been replaced by heaters.

A chimney sweeper typically cleaned ash and soot from chimneys. This profession was quite common in the pre-Victorian era in United Kingdom. There were sweep companies that employed workers. Many sweeps were children or young boys as they had the ability to climb into chimneys.

In Germany, sweeps were employed by government. In Belgium, Italy, France and United Kingdom these practices were privately owned.