Although not commonly known, there is an old tradition that seeing a chimney sweep on your wedding day can bless the wedding and bring luck to your marriage. Bearing this wedding tradition in mind, after starting his own chimney sweeping business in Shropshire, Whixall based sweep, Stephen Grogan branched out into offering his services to couples tying the knot.

A former military man, Mr Grogan has been in the chimney sweeping business for around 3 months. Now running his own business, he wanted to add another avenue to the services he provided to people, and having heard about the tradition to have a sweep bless your wedding, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for his business to grow and for wedding couples to find a local sweep if they wanted to observe the tradition.

Stephen said,

“I was keen to become my own boss and do something that provides a good service and enables you to meet people.”

He explained his motivations were to give new beginnings to old traditions, which are thought to originate from chimney sweeps being named as lucky when one saved King George II.

Many sweeps offer different services from toasting the happy couple, to tipping their hat when the bride and groom enter the church. Most, like Stephen, offer photograph opportunities, giving an alternative to the traditional group photograph, whilst Stephen also provides a lucky gift and personalised poem.