Have you seen a chimney sweep at a wedding?

[Glitterbiscuits]

DH and I are driving behind a sweep’s van and he wonders if sweeps still go to weddings? We are now old (50s) And I’ve never seen one at any wedding we’ve been to. Was it ever a thing? Is it a thing now? Of course you wouldn’t need to be an actual real chimney sweep to appear at a wedding, you’d just appear in a costume.

And are there any other wedding traditions that have died out? Do people still tie tin cans onto the cars?

It's not just a Scottish thing. My family are from London and I always remember brides being handed horseshoe trinkets at weddings when I was a kid - a couple of people gave them to my sister at her wedding in the early 90s. You used to be able to buy shiny plastic ones card shops (along with plastic keys for 18th and 21st birthdays) and people handed them to the bride when she came out of the church with the groom after the ceremony, after the confetti.

I haven't seen one in the last 20 years though.

My mum still has some bits from her wedding (early 1960s!) in a box with her wedding album and there's a real horseshoe with ribbons tied on it in there, as well as a plastic one, and also a very kitsch little flocked cardboard lucky black cat someone gave her.

I haven't ever seen a chimney sweep at a wedding myself but my parents have a couple of old photos from family weddings in the 50s and 60s where there's a sweep shaking hands with the bride. I think it's specifically the handshake that's meant to be good luck.

NE Scotland.
Definitely horseshoe giving when I was young and scramble by the bride's father as she left the house.

Also people coming to the house with gifts in the weeks leading up. You were expected to take them in give them a drink, show them all the presents then give them a cup of tea and homebakes before they left.
Thankfully this seems to have died out.

First English wedding I won't to I thought it was very strange that people were taking their presents to the actual wedding.

HA ! 😂

I had the tacky plastic horse shoes, black cat and a wedding bell. I also had a beautiful hand carved wooden love spoon.

That was 43 years ago in Wales.

My children have all married and none of them had anything similar.

I'm 69 and have occasionally seen chimney sweeps at weddings. Sweeps have been considered lucky for at least 200 years and not just at weddings. In the original Mary Poppins some of you will recall that Bert (the chimney sweep) sings "a sweep is as lucky, as lucky can be"! Horseshoes are also considered lucky symbols but that tradition goes back thousands of years. They used to be hung over doorways, especially in the countryside. It was almost inconceivable for at least one guest not to give a horseshoe (usually a plastic one adorned with ribbons) to the bride. I'm surprised this practice hasn't endured. Brides almost always wore a blue garter too which they'd often show off at the reception!

It absolutely was in all parts of the UK not that long ago. Read my post above.

We got a plastic horseshoe last year from our Scottish niece, she painted it, you can buy blank ones there. No idea about the sweep thing, before my time

I had not heard of the tradition until I read Barbara Vine's The Chimney Sweeper's Boy (1998).

Oh my goodness, I'd forgotten all about chimney sweeps and weddings. I think I've only ever seen one once, and that would have been at a wedding in London circa 1970.

Yes, I've been given horseshoes at both of my weddings (some years apart, I hasten to add). One of the horseshoes is brass and still hangs on our bedpost.

In the original Mary Poppins some of you will recall that Bert (the chimney sweep) sings "a sweep is as lucky, as lucky can be"!

Oh yes I'd forgotten that. "Good luck will rub off when I shake hands with you."

as well as horseshoes a lot of weddings i know the bride had a rolling pin. just a normal wooden one new of course with a loop of white ribbon so it could be held. a lot of wedding photos I collect show the bride with quite an assortment of horseshoes and rolling pins, feel sorry for them juggling all that and the bouquet!
A lot of people used to take a prayer book or bible instead of a bouquet but do not see any of that anymore

My mum and dad married in 1975 in london and got given a whole load of silver (plastic) wedding good luck things including a chimney sweep figure and horseshoe. I remember giving a horseshoe to a teacher in my primary school when she got married. I suspect that it's no longer a thing since about the late 80s?

@RaraRachaelsame, we had to get a new bath after DH blackening. It died the iron it was so bad.

I remember all the local farmers wife’s coming to try and sort it out. 25 years ago and the smell!!

Great fun though - driving through the streets making a racket.
I'm sure some holiday visitors must wonder what's going on 😅

Yes! The seeing the bride off from her house used to be a thing. I remember doing that quite a few times as a child/ for neighbours etc

Recently in SW Scotland. Large paertu of men on one trailer, women on another tarred and feathered. Very merry indeed. Pre wedding, off to the pub 8m up the road.

🧹

Yes a couple of times, probably in the 90s now I think about it. but then I havent been to any weddings since so not sure if its common. Bit of a shame its something we have clearly lost as a little tradition.

There are a company of female sweeps in Essex (think they are called The Sweep Sisters) who attend weddings quite frequently.

I think Mary Poppins is the only cultural reference most of us have when to comes to chimney sweeps. But yes, everyone he passes shakes his hand in that scene.

I had one at my wedding 29 years ago. It was the photographers son who got dressed up.

I got given a horseshoe at my wedding in 2019. My DM also fastened the church gates and we had to "pay" the children to leave, which i think is another old tradition. I'd never heard of the latter until DM did it. We did have someone at our wedding who wasnt a chimney sweep at the time, but now is. Does that still count?!

Edit to add - this was N Yorkshire

I think Mary Poppins is the only cultural reference most of us have when to comes to chimney sweeps.

https://www.visitmedway.org/visit-medway-features/the-roots-of-the-rochester-sweeps-festival/

Shame it's been culturally lost really. Sweeps were definitely still thought of as lucky right up until the 90's. Not sure about thereafter as I haven't had many conversations involving them!

No, all brides used to be given 'lucky horseshoes' when I was young, in England. Not just a Scottish thing.

But also, no, I haven't seen it for 20 years or so,