Last night, just getting out of shower, missus shouts "there's rubble falling down the chimney" (chimney in question is in front room with open fire).
I pop down and sure enouigh there is bits of mortar falling down it. Go upstairs and can hear stuff falling in the chimney from the front bedroom.
An extremely nervous ten minutes follow, during which lots of soot etc fall into the house, after which we worked out a bird had got stuck in the chimney. Minutes later a dove appears in the fireplace!! Luckily there was a fireguard in place to prevent it flying round the room and covering everything in soot! Managed to get an old sheet round the bird and put it outside, it looked around in amazement and flew off.
Anyway is there something we can get fitted to the chimney to prevent recurrence, without impacting the "draw" of the fire or getting in the way of chimnet sweeping?
I pop down and sure enouigh there is bits of mortar falling down it. Go upstairs and can hear stuff falling in the chimney from the front bedroom.
An extremely nervous ten minutes follow, during which lots of soot etc fall into the house, after which we worked out a bird had got stuck in the chimney. Minutes later a dove appears in the fireplace!! Luckily there was a fireguard in place to prevent it flying round the room and covering everything in soot! Managed to get an old sheet round the bird and put it outside, it looked around in amazement and flew off.
Anyway is there something we can get fitted to the chimney to prevent recurrence, without impacting the "draw" of the fire or getting in the way of chimnet sweeping?