Chimney sweep in Surrey

Surrey is where the buildings are most often older than they look. Guildford's High Street has medieval and Tudor structures behind Georgian frontages, and Chiddingfold's green is ringed with cottages that are medieval in origin — with inglenook throats wide enough to stand in and stacks built as the structural heart of the house.

It is also the highest and coldest part of the round. Haslemere sits in wooded hills where the burning season runs longer at both ends, and where mature trees close to a stack can disturb the draw in a way that looks exactly like a blockage from inside. Dorking has the opposite problem from the opposite cause — tucked under the North Downs, it gets wind dropping into the valley and pushing back down flues that are perfectly clean.