Nigel's life of grime

Living in the up-market, leafy Wolverhampton suburb of Wightwick, Nigel Grosvenor is surrounded by high-earning professionals.

But the 49-year-old usually spends his days getting his hands dirty as a coal merchant and chimney sweep – and thanks to the credit crunch, business is booming.

"I joke to people that it's lucky for me the credit crunch happened in the winter as business has never been so good," says Nigel, who lives on Torvale Road. "With the increase in demand for coal I'm out every day delivering to people's homes. Plus, thanks to the number of people switching to real fires my services as a chimney sweep are in demand." Nigel's grandfather Norman started the family business around 70 years ago with a horse and cart and a coal yard at the back of his house.

"It was a real Steptoe and Son operation with my father taking over the coal merchant business when my grandmother died," says Nigel.

Nigel, whose wife Julie is a midwife at New Cross Hospital, says: "My grandfather was one of the first businesses in the area to have a lorry but he didn't like it as much as a horse and cart. He always used to say that when they did the deliveries the horse knew where he was going better than he did."

Around 18 years ago Nigel decided to become a chimney sweep. "Business as a coal merchant dies down in the summer and people started asking me if I knew a good chimney sweep," says Nigel, who owns Fuels Direct Ltd and is a member of the National Association of Chimney Sweeps.

Nigel has two sons Richard, aged 20, and Louis, aged five, and says he hopes they will want to continue running the family business.

He said: "As a chimney sweep, when I go to houses children are always ready with the chimney sweep song from Mary Poppins. I say to them 'I don't mind singing along but I'm not going to dance on your roof!'"