Sawston Village History Society
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The speaker at the October meeting was Joanna Hudson from Pampisford. She spoke about George Brewster, a climbing boy, who was born in 1863 and lived in Comet Court near the Castle pub in Cambridge.
He was apprenticed to William Dyer, a chimney sweep, as a climbing boy and became stuck in a chimney at Fulbourn Asylum on 11 February 1875. Despite efforts to extract him, he died from suffocation aged only eleven. The inquest made the national press and attracted the attention of Lord Shaftesbury who had already done much work in promoting legislation to limit working hours for children. As a result, the Chimney Sweeps Act was passed later in 1875 and followed by further Acts which banned child labour and made education compulsory. William Dyer was convicted of manslaughter and after George no other boy was to die in a chimney.
Following a campaign on 12 February 2025, 150 years after the death of George Brewster, a blue plaque was unveiled on the building where he died by the current earl of Shaftesbury. George is buried in the Mill Road cemetery on a grave which contains others so he does not have a headstone. Joanna is also hoping that the redevelopment of the Guildhall area in Cambridge might include a statue of George.
Mary Dicken