The winter clean has begun at the National Trust country house Gunby Hall, where a specialist team of volunteers is busy removing dust and corrosion from over 9,000 artefacts and furniture to preserve them for future generations.
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00:00 Shedders may be down at the 18th century Gumby Hall, but while the Grade 1 listed house is
00:07 close to the public, inside is a hive of activity.
00:13 Can you explain what you're doing?
00:17 We have this delicate crystalware that's normally kept in a cupboard.
00:20 It has to be cleaned very carefully because it is so delicate.
00:25 So we're only allowed to dry brush it, we're not allowed to use any water near it in case
00:31 any water gets into any cracks that might exist because it's so old.
00:37 The reason that Sue is holding the glass is to keep it very firm and stable so I don't
00:43 push it over with the brush as it's so bulky.
00:48 We're also assessing it as we go along.
00:51 We have sheets like this which note any cracks or chips or anything that's on it so we check
00:56 it each year to make sure there's no further deterioration.
01:00 And it's absolutely a privilege to be able to handle some of the items that are in the
01:04 house that normally we don't get to handle as room guides and certainly the public sometimes
01:10 don't even get to see.
01:11 So we absolutely love doing this.
01:15 Making sure it's all gleaming when they start coming back.
01:19 Absolutely.
01:20 We clean once a year, deep cleaning once a year to ensure everything is dust free and
01:26 as Sue said to make sure it's all assessed for no further deterioration.
01:32 I'm Wendy Jackson and I'm Senior Collectionist and House Officer here at Gumby Hall.
01:37 Now the hall is closed to the public isn't it but there is a lot going on.
01:43 There is a lot going on.
01:44 So we do have a very short period in the winter when actually the house isn't open to visitors
01:49 but we are frantically at work ensuring that we are caring for our collection in the best
01:54 ways possible to make sure that we maintain it for future generations.
01:58 Now there's some volunteers in doing a big clean.
02:01 Can you tell me about that?
02:03 I can.
02:04 Obviously the collection within Gumby is over 9,000 objects.
02:07 They're not all on the visitor route but we do have to clean and maintain all our collection.
02:12 So annually we inspect every item within the collection and we compare it to see whether
02:18 it's deteriorated over the year just to see if we've maybe got some insect infestation
02:23 in the furniture, maybe it's active or just to check that something that's on a visitor
02:27 route isn't accidentally getting rubbed and touched and therefore a textile is being destroyed
02:32 in that whole process.
02:33 So it's a really good opportunity for us to get close to our collection and make sure
02:39 that we're presenting it in the best ways possible to maintain it.
02:42 Now we've seen some ladies cleaning some of the glassware and some of the pottery.
02:49 That is very intricate work.
02:52 Do they need training for that?
02:54 We do.
02:55 So we ask volunteers who are volunteering here anyway if they'll be interested in doing
02:59 conservation clean.
03:00 It is only over the winter period and we give them a little brief training session to show
03:06 them the process and why we do these things.
03:09 It's not that we're overly house-proud, it's just that we need to maintain these items.
03:13 So nature would naturally decline these objects so chemical reactions can interact with the
03:22 object and rust will, you know, metals will corrode.
03:26 You know we might get insects, moths etc.
03:28 So we have to make sure that we do a really deep clean and we couldn't do that without
03:32 our volunteers and they do enjoy it.
03:34 They do come back year on year and they do enjoy the process.
03:37 And that's right down to dust on the walls, isn't it?
03:41 We do everything.
03:42 We will lift a carpet, we will vacuum the top, the underside of the carpet and the underlay
03:45 as well.
03:46 But again, these are the spaces that the moths like to hide their larvae, the carpet beetles
03:51 like to live.
03:52 So if we do that and we do it thoroughly once a year, then hopefully we can stop any major
03:57 infestations occurring during the following year.
04:00 How many volunteers do you have working on this?
04:03 We have a reactive volunteer group of about 20 volunteers.
04:07 We could have more but obviously capacity wise you can only maintain or manage so many
04:12 per session so we have about 20 volunteers.
04:15 And how many rooms are they working in?
04:17 They will be working in all the visitor rooms so I think we have about 15 rooms.
04:22 But obviously we have got the connecting spaces as well, corridors, all of these spaces are
04:27 only doing in this brief time period.
04:31 And how long will it take you?
04:34 We will be finished by the time we reopen so February half term week, February 10th
04:40 we will be done, everything will be back, presentation will be back to normal and everything
04:44 will be clean.
04:45 So it's not long is it really?
04:48 Not long.
04:49 It's going to go quickly.
04:50 And again, this is why we need the volunteers, we really could not do this without our volunteers
04:53 in such a short time period.
04:55 They are wonderful.
04:58 The conservation clean is expected to continue until the February half term when the house
05:04 reopens to the public.