When Sunrise Chimney Sweeps was announced as Best Independent Business at the March 2026 awards, the room erupted, but no one looked more stunned than its owner, Neil Jarrett, who still describes himself as “just the chimney sweep who pops in for an hour a year.”
Four years after opening his business, the win felt surreal. For him, it wasn’t just a trophy. It was proof that a leap of faith taken on a cold Sunday morning run along Stokes Bay, had changed his life.
A career built in sparks, steam and perseverance
Before soot and stove flues, Neil’s world was high voltage. For nearly two decades he worked as an engineer, installing major substations for Scottish and Southern Energy, including the huge Tesco development in Fareham. Before that, he served eight years in the Royal Navy as a marine engineer. And even earlier still, he’d been an apprentice electrician, which is the place, he says, where he “finally found himself” after a childhood marked by bullying and quietness.
“Being an apprentice was the first time I was around people like me,” he recalls. “I started to grow. Then the Navy built my confidence and my technical abilities. Every role had its amazing points,” he says, smiling.
But shift work at SSE took its toll. Five years of nights and rotations left Neil exhausted, unwell, and struggling with IBS. “Some people thrive on shift work. I didn’t. It put me in a low place.”
One Sunday, during a breakfast‑club run with his friend Nick Carter, everything shifted.
“He could see I wasn’t right,” he says. “I told him I hated work and wanted to do something else. I’d been looking at chimney sweep training for a year but didn’t have the confidence to try something completely new.”
Nick asked him one simple question: What’s the worst that could happen? They talked costs, risks, and the possibility of failure. By the end of the run, the decision was made.
“That conversation changed my life. I owe Nick a lot. He helped me put it into perspective.”
Neil completed the training and loved it. “I planned to sweep part‑time whilst still working my main job, just until I found my feet, but word spread fast and within a year, I found myself leaving my comfort nest of being an employee with a pension, sick pay and annual leave, and stepped into self‑employment full‑time.
Building Sunrise Chimney Sweeps, one living room at a time
The early days were nerve‑wracking. Neil’s first jobs were for friends and neighbours, which he says was a safe space to build confidence in a role that is, by nature, messy and intimate.
“You’re in someone’s home, in their personal space. It’s a lot of pressure.”
Neil must have done something right as his very first paying customer is still with him five years later.
I ask Neil what he loves the most about his job. “What surprised me the most about this job isn’t the technical work, it is the humanity of it. The conversations. The pets. The children who were unborn when I first visited and are now off to infant school. The older customers who wait by the window for my van because my visit might be the highlight of their week.”
Neil says he allows two hours for some of his elderly customers. “I have found that many of them are lonely and I am the only person they have seen that week. They just want a chat. I’ve sadly had customers tell me they’re terminally ill, and months later I get a call to say they’ve passed. I’ve been invited to funerals, which is a privilege. also witnessed the quieter heartbreaks: the missing dog bed that tells him a beloved pet is gone. The widower who now lives alone. The family who had a dangerous log burner finally fixed by me after months of frustration. If I can solve a problem others can’t, that’s hugely satisfying.”
The sweep who brings luck
Chimney sweeps have long been considered lucky, a tradition rooted in folklore. One story tells of a king whose horse bolted during a parade; a sweep stepped forward, calmed it, and was rewarded with lifelong honour. Another tale dates back to the days of thatched roofs, when a clever villager cleaned his chimney with holly branches and saved his home from fire.
Neil honours that history in small ways. “If someone has an open fire and an open chimney pot, I invite them to go outside and make a wish while the brush is up out of the Chimney pot and clear to see,” Neil laughs.
He’s even been invited to weddings where he arrives in a full German chimney sweep tunic, brass belt and top hat, gifted by a customer whose daughter teaches dance in Germany.
“It’s a smart uniform. At the last wedding all the bridesmaids were in blue, so I matched them.”
“As a gift I gave the Bride and Groom a 3D‑printed chimney sweep figurine. It’s a small touch but they have been very well received.”
A family business, but not in the way you’d expect
Neil and his wife Lisa have been married 22 years and have 17‑year‑old twin boys. The boys join him during college holidays for work experience and are already competent sweeps. “I have taught them how to sweep, but I want them to forge their own paths and live their own dreams. Both plan to join the armed forces, and I will support that.”
Why Gosport matters
He’s lived in the area most of his life, settling here in the 90s when he bought his first house while serving in the Navy.
“I love Gosport. It’s magic.”
His customer base spans the full spectrum of the borough, from former admirals to pensioners living alone. What unites them, he says, is friendliness.
“Gosport is super friendly. People appreciate the service. They want to get behind you. I still can’t believe that I won the Independent Business Awards this year, and that my customers took time out of their day to nominate me. That means everything.”
The night everything came full circle
At the awards ceremony, Neil was surrounded by 20 long‑established businesses that had also been shortlisted, and he felt like the newcomer.
“I had imposter syndrome. Others had been around for decades. Then there was me as the new kid on the block.”
But two of his customers were in the room, attending as guests of other businesses. They stood up and spoke about him, about trust, reliability, and the comfort they feel when he walks through their door.
“It was overwhelming. I only see them for an hour a year, yet they took the time to vote for me. That’s humbling.”
He attended the ceremony with Lisa, who has been by his side through every career shift, and says the award belongs as much to her as to him.
Four years in, and just getting started
From a bullied schoolboy to a confident engineer, from a burned‑out shift worker to an award‑winning chimney sweep, his story is one of resilience, reinvention, and the quiet power of community.
Sunrise Chimney Sweeps isn’t just a business. It’s a reminder that sometimes the smallest roles, the ones that take place in living rooms, beside log burners, with a cup of tea and a chat, are the ones that bind a town together.
For more information please visit: Sunrise Chimney Sweeps Limited
info@sunrisechimneysweeps.co.uk