Sweeping chimneys in Hyde
Hyde is a mill town and it is built like one. Terraced streets through the centre and out towards Godley and Newton, put up when every room had a fire, with narrow flues and stacks running the length of the row.
Gee Cross is a different proposition — older, larger property on the rise towards Werneth Low, with more space, more fireplaces per house and a good deal more weather on the stacks. It is also where we see the hardest-worked stoves, because up there a log burner is often genuine heating rather than an evening luxury.
Between the two sit the interwar and post-war estates, where the common job is a fireplace reopened during a renovation or a stove fitted into a chimney that was built for an open fire.