2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Danny Thompson)
A local chimney sweep has shared a grizzly picture of the moment he discovered 60 dead birds in a disused fire place. Andrew Crompton, of Crompton Chimney Sweeps, was called to a manor house in South Warwickshire last week. The home, which is hundreds of years old, has been selected by TV bosses to be used for filming an upcoming period drama.
Part of the filming includes use of the old fire place which has sat dormant and unused for four decades. Andrew was called in to ensure the fire was operational ahead of shooting. While carrying out the work, he made a rather macabre discovery, more akin to a horror movie than a costume drama, when he removed the barrier between the fireplace and the chimney.
READ MORE: Image shows devastation of serious Nuneaton fire that left family and man homeless "They wanted an operational fire so they called me to see if was usable," Andrew told CoventryLive. "I got there and it was completely blocked. The baffle plate, the barrier that stops things falling into the fireplace when not being used, was impossible to open - the fireplace hadn't been used for 40 years.
"Bit by bit, I got the baffle plate open and was pulling the odd bird through, I got to twenty and thought that would be it, but they just kept coming. In the end I counted 60 dead birds - a record for me, but it might be a Guinness World Record too. "It's quite horrific - were they all in there alive at the same time? Was the noise they were making attracting others and getting them trapped too? It's one of things you don't want to think about too much.
"But 50 million birds die in UK chimneys every year, which is quite shocking - my previous record was 17 dead jackdaws in one chimney - but I've never seen anything on this scale. Based in Southam, Andrew sweeps chimneys up to a 30 mile radius..
