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We are Chimney Sheep. We create sustainable solutions.

About Us

In 2012, our Founder, Sally Phillips, invented and started to sell Chimney Sheep® chimney draught excluders made of Herdwick wool from a small workshop in Cumbria. Today, our ‘Sheep are sold all over the world from our warehouse in Workington and are still our best-selling product. Over the years, we have also worked to curate our own range of sustainable household and garden items that are both practical and effective. Where possible our products are made from recycled, sustainable or natural materials. Our shop has everything from draught excluders to insulation, laundry products to natural gardening items and we always have our thinking caps on as to what we can add next.

We are passionate about the environment but believe that you don’t have to sacrifice practicality for ‘eco-friendly’ and that sustainability in its true form is pretty simple! That was the exact mindset we had when we created the Chimney Sheep® draught excluder and is still our belief today.

At the centre of it all, is our Community Interest Company, Buy Land Plant Trees (BLPT). 10% of the profit from every purchase with us facilitates the planting of trees in agriculturally poor land in Cumbria.

Our mission is to provide our customers with sustainable solutions. We want to make sustainable living accessible, easy to understand and simple to implement, whilst facilitating the planting of trees on agriculturally poor land in the UK through Buy Land Plant Trees CIC. To do this we help our customers make sense of sustainable living by creating and curating simple, functional, environmentally-friendly house & garden products that can be found all in one place.

Our promise to you

Sustainability first.

We will continually remind our audience to consume mindfully and not unnecessarily – if you don't need it, don't buy it. That is true sustainable living, after all.

Functionality.

All of our products have been researched, tried and tested by members of our team before we add them to the shop to ensure that they are 100% fit for purpose and are items that we genuinely love.

Transparency.

We don’t like pulling the wool over our customers’ eyes (excuse the pun) so are always transparent about how and why our products are sustainable.

The creation of the Chimney Sheep®

2010

The chimney dilemma

Sally Phillips worked as an ecologist specialising in bat surveys, often rescuing them from open chimneys. Intrigued by chimneys, she found that they constantly drew air out of properties. This caused huge amounts of heat loss. She wanted to create a solution that would block airflow but still allow the chimney to breathe, be easy to take in and out and be sustainable. The key to all of that? FELTED WOOL!

2011

Which wool?

Living in Cumbria she was able to get lots of wool samples from farmers and learned about its various properties – naturally insulating, breathable, sustainable, high quality, under-utilised, compressive and malleable. Sally tried various types of wool but the only one that was coarse and stiff enough to hold its shape when felted was Herdwick wool. Just by coincidence, Cumbria was the home of the Herdwick sheep!

2012

Ready for launch

To help with the development of the product, Sally contacted Lancaster University where they helped her to come up with a clamp and handle design to ensure that it was easy to put in and take out. By September 2012, Sally had a product that she was able to sell and over the years has been able to add various sizes to the range to cover most chimney sizes.

Today

Conquering the world!

We have gone from strength to strength, selling our ‘Sheep’ all over the UK, the USA and Australia. Between 2012 and 2022, we have bought 100,000kgs of Herdwick wool and sold 160,000 Chimney Sheep draught excluders helping our customers save 118,080 tonnes of CO2 and £16,551,362 on their heating bills. We've also been one of Kevin McCloud’s Green Heroes, gained BBA approval and won several awards including a Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

We always do more

From planting trees using 10% of the profit from our sales to working with our local farmers to source our Herdwick wool, we do more to ensure we are a sustainable and ethical business.