A trusty holiday

Last week I was away on a much anticipated holiday, and how else would this National Trust employee spend her annual leave than visiting other Trust properties! The holiday started with a re-enactment event way down south, which was why me …

Textile excitement at Eyam Hall

This week I was drafted in to help cleaning some of the more delicate textiles at Eyam Hall. Eyam is a beautiful house and gardens in the Peaks that the Trust have taken guardianship of nearly two years ago. As they are still quite a small team and in our property portfolio staff from Hardwick offer support in a variety of ways, including looking after some of the more fragile items in the collection.

I last visited Eyam on a beautifully sunny day so being there on a very misty day while there was snow on the ground gave the Hall a different feel. Very mysterious and atmospheric. It was so cold even the pond was still frozen!

While we where there we cleaned the amazing Crewel Work bedspread that Eyam have in the Oak Bedroom. The bedspread was apparently made for Elizabeth Wright around the time that Eyam Hall was being built in the 1680’s. It features amazing colours and wonderful images of exotic birds, beautiful flowers and highly decorated leaves that I just loved!

I was in my element, getting to see this wonderful embroidered work up close. Thinking about skill and hours that must have gone into making this bedspread, and the hangings to match, make me so please we can care for this amazing piece so people can continue to admire it for years to come. And the carved wood of the bed frame complements the elaborate embroidery nicely.

We also took a look at the Tapestry Room, taking a sample of the dust on the tapestry nearest the door to see how the increase in visitor numbers has been affecting it. Since it is a small room even if they have less visitors than Hardwick to dust will build up faster as there is less room for it to disperse. Since there will be many more visitors now the Trust are running Eyam it is something we need to monitor closely. The tapestry room is lovely, it makes me feel very at home!

With Eyam Hall being a family home for many, many generations the collection rather eclectic with some really interesting objects. Some of my favorites included this stuffed moose, and these steps in the library, which double as a chair!

The House has real character, we got to sneak up to the top floor and see some of the rooms not open to the public, and there were these curious windows. There are several different types of windows throughout the building, which I thought was rather unusual.

I also love the detailing around the house, like the carved finials up the stair case, with little hearts in the center.

As another perk of being a staff member we got a sneak peek into the a little building in the garden, which will be opening to the public at weekends. The use of this building, situated in the garden, has been debated.

Until recently it was known as the Gardener’s cottage but it has been discovered that is was originally used as a Banqueting House, where dessert would have been eaten after a meal. Although it is only a little room, it is full of character and atmosphere, and curious items.

I really enjoyed my day at Eyam, and we have planned to go back and do some more work there soon. I love my work, and it is really nice to have a little day out and get a chance to do what I love in another beautiful location!

Haddon Hall at Christmas!

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope everybody had a lovely December, I was so busy with work and friends and family that I feel like I need another Christmas break to recover!

I had a lovely day out to near by Haddon Hall which was decorated for Christmas, and it was beautiful! The hall dates back to the 11th century and is currently owned and occupied by the Manners family, lucky people!

Haddon Hall

I had never been to Haddon before, and I really look forward to visiting again. The decorations were lovely and there were real fires throughout (very jealous).

Fire!

The decorations were mostly traditional greenery that fits with the interior decor of the hall. It looked really nice, still managing to stand out in the rooms and make our visit feel very festive.

The Main Hall

I especially loved the Peacock themed decorations in the Long Gallery! It is the sort of room that makes people go ‘Wow’ when they see it, myself included.

The Long Gallery

Peacock Tree

The Long Gallery was themed with Peacocks because it features on the Manners family coat of arms. They are beautiful birds anyway, and I am especially fond of them now as they remind me of my time at Powis.

A peacock carved into the wood of the Long Gallery

Another tree I really liked was the on where visitors were invited to write their Christmas wishes on tags and hang them on the tree. It had a really good effect and I thought it looked very classical against the tapestry backdrop.

The wishes tree

It was an amazingly beautiful day, really sunny (yet still freezing!) and that just added to the beauty of Haddon’s lovely grounds. The rooms were light and the sun made some really interesting effects where it was streaming in through the windows.

Sunshine!

Sunshine on the dining room table

I was also really taken with the interesting windows at Haddon. They are all wibbly (technical term) and reflected the light so delightfully.

Haddon’s windows

The Chapel was especially atmospheric, decorated with greenery, music playing, candles burning and full of smoke from the incense burning. We spend a lot of time in there, absorbing the atmosphere and admiring the paintings on the walls.

The Chapel

In the courtyard at Haddon Hall

Across the courtyard from the main hall is a little museum displaying objects found in the hall. It has a really interesting, eclectic collection, with pretty pieces of glass, nice keys and even a piece of Hardwick matting!

I would really recommend a visit to Haddon, it is a stunning property with real charm, especially on a nice sunny day when you can fully appreciate not only the beautiful interiors and manicured garden but also the building itself within its amazing location.

When i’m cleaning windows

As you may have gathered here at Powis there are always jobs to be done, and a vast range of them too! This past week we have been on the top floor of the castle cleaning the windows and applying pesticides to them. The top floor is not open to the public and therefore is not often used. This means the top floor is the area with most pest activity in the castle and it has to be treated for this problem.

The view from the window of the ‘loo with a view’

The beautiful scenery!

This week’s task involved vacuuming the window spaces, washing the windows down with warm, soapy water and then spraying the window frames and sills with Constrain, a pesticide developed by Bob Child. Cleaning the windows means there is less fodder for pests to attract them inside the building. The Constrain ensures that if pests do get in through the gaps around the windows they are poisoned and will die, rather than cause damage or breed in the building. It is an important job to be done every few months, and it has fantastic views! I really can’t complain about this task while looking out at the beautiful castle gardens and surrounding scenery. It was also a nice job in that we were working as a team; one person vacuuming while the others took turns to wash and spray the windows, going up the ladder and doing the bottom ones in turn as well. I really enjoy it when our tasks give us the opportunity to work together as a team, we really get along well, have a good chat and a laugh, and the day seems to fly by!

Here are some photos I took from the roof of the castle today, accessible from the ‘loo with a view’ at the very top of the castle! (and it’s still a working toilet!)

The Courtyard from on top the roof

The ‘cold’ side of the garden

The maze on the Great Lawn

The roof of Powis Castle