Research – FMP (Calke Abbey)

References:

• Calke Abbey | National Trust. 2018. Calke Abbey. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/calke-abbey. [Accessed 16 May 2019]

Work at Calke Abbey: 

• Winter Cleaning in the house:

The main priority for the winter is cleaning the house and to inspect every room on the visitors route. The house workers carefully strip all the displays and carefully clean each individual object in the house then the carpets and everything around them. Then everything is covered with dustsheets to keep everything clean until the house opens.

• Starting the big clean

Every year the Abbey gets a big deep clean, they start this by cleaning the Oak Room then followed by Gardener Wilkinson’s library through to the Night Room and to Sir Vauncey’s bedroom. Scaffolding is built in some of the rooms as it has high ceilings to clean the walls. Examples of rooms would be the Yellow Room, School Room,  Boudoir and the Saloon.

• Protecting the floors

Eyemats were installed in certain rooms of the house along the visitor route. Eyemats are protective flooring made to look like the original flooring, this is so the original flooring underneath is protected so it doesn’t get damaged.

• The metalwork

The metal work is cleaned and treated with special paste made from Renaissance wax and white spirit. This creates a protective layer and preserves the current level of decay for 5 years .