Rods and Brushes, Roods and Bushels - How Chimney sweeping helped fund my passion for history

Starting a business can often come with an initial set-up cost but the B-Enterprising team are currently looking to help University of Birmingham businesses with an offer for £500 funding.

One of the latest individuals to be helped from the Start-Up Fund is Medievel History student Darrin Gamble who has started a chimney sweeping business called  'As Daft as a Brush'.

Darrin initially started this business to fund his Masters course and talks about his new life as a chimney sweep whilst enjoying his passion of history.

We caught up with Darrin to brush up on his story - to find out about his passion for history and the added benefits to trying something new in chinney sweeping.

"I enjoyed a successful and rewarding career in social housing, but after 30 years I knew I was ready for a change. Through various business training courses, I was always encouraged to have a Plan B – what I was going to do when I no longer wanted to or could continue with my Plan A.

At the end of January 2019 this year, I set my Plan B in motion. I have had a lifelong passion for history, especially the medieval period and wanted to pursue this love through doing the Medieval Studies MA at the University of Birmingham.

After getting my place on the MA secured, the next step was to find a way of funding myself through the 10 months of the course and beyond. 

This needed to be something that was flexible - to fit in with my studies and from a personal point of view it had to be very different from the work I had been doing in my professional life. After having watched various chimney sweeps in action at my own house over the years. I knew that this could be a trade that would offer me the variety, the flexibility and the direct contact with customers that I wanted. It also offered me the opportunity to learn new skills and was a way of starting my own company with relatively low set up costs.

So, I decided to become a chimney sweep. I spent a week being trained by the National Association of Chimney Sweeps and then began to market and promote my new business. 2 months in and I am loving the MA – it is giving me the right balance between building my knowledge of the middle ages and also stretching me in to new areas of theoretical learning.

I am also loving running my own business, I am steadily building a customer base and have had some great reviews, customers telling me that I provide a ‘fantastic chimney sweep service’, ‘excellent service’ and ‘definitely recommended’. All great recommendations for a new start up business.

I certainly have variety. In the morning I may be in a customers lounge sweeping a chimney with my rods and brushes and in the afternoon reading some 14^th century manorial court rolls, learning the meaning of a whole new set of words such as roods and bushels!

So as a way of saying thank you for that help and a way of giving something back I am offering a 10% discount on all sweeps for university staff and students. Please get in touch with me at darrin@asdaftasabrush.co.uk or through my website www.asdaftasabrush.co.uk and I’ll be happy to help."

If you would like to apply for funding, please refer to the B-Enterprising Funding page and find out how we can help your business or business idea.

With thanks to Darrin Gamble
Compiled by Bob Lee