If you go up to the attics on Wednesdays, you’re sure of a big surprise!

September 26, 2019 | Land management | 4 minute read

Those of you who have been on our Hidden Passages and Servant Stairs Tour recently will have noticed that the attics at Holkham are now a hive of activity. You will have come across our brand-new team of Conservation Volunteers beavering away either in the Attic Library, in the Fabric Room or in the Porcelain Room. Sometimes in all three rooms things are happening at once.

It has been such a thrill to see the Hall Conservation Volunteer Programme take off in such a positive way. As well as an Induction Day, we have had training days in book conservation and cleaning (from Nick Selwood of Eagle Bindery, who has repaired some of our most treasured books and manuscripts), porcelain cleaning (from our very own Collections Co-ordinator, Katherine Hardwick) and textile conservation and handling, overseen by our Housekeeper, Suzanne Paul. Daniel Green, our Butler, has also trained the whole team in how to clean silver, which was very exciting and a great success.

On the library front, we have had a solid turn out every week and have been working in teams of two at up to three workstations. Our volunteers are removing the books in order, assessing and cleaning the shelves, one shelf at a time. Then, working from the shelf list print-outs, they are meticulously removing dust from each book (from outside and then inside the covers) before assessing the book’s condition. Dust is removed using a low-suction vacuum and soft brushes, which are often made of pony hair. We are pleased to report that so far we have only discovered one historic bookworm and a few very dead flies! As we assess the bookshelves, we are making sure that there is nothing nasty is lurking in the wood or in the books. Soon, we will be treating all the shelves for woodworm.

All the information gathered here will feed into the wider library conservation programme. Damaged books, with loose covers, for example, are being temporarily bound up with archival tape and many will be provided with custom-made ‘phase’ boxes to live in, until we can look to restore them.

Several books assessed in this way in the Long Library, under a previous programme, are now entering our ongoing repair programme, which will leave them nearly as good as new. This is a highly-skilled procedure and we are working closely in conjunction with Nick Selwood to undertake this work.

While cleaning the books we keep coming across fascinating items such as bookplates and marginalia, attesting to previous owners of the volumes. Marginalia are marks made in books, often scribbles, notes and doodles. One very old bible even looked as if it had been singed by a candle held too close. We have found some lovely examples of old parchment manuscripts used as endpapers in later printed books. We have also found schoolbooks owned by family members from the 1840s with doodles and even games of noughts and crosses in them- Latin lessons were boring even back then, apparently!

Our porcelain room is now looking fairly ship-shape, too. Sophie, a previous placement student from UEA, started the cleaning and cataloguing process, under Katherine’s watchful eye. Katherine is now overseeing the volunteers as they carry on her good work. All pieces are sorted into sets, delicately cleaned, catalogued and then wrapped and boxed. New shelving for the room will allow us to store the collection in a safe and accessible way for years to come.

If you’d like the chance to explore behind-the-scenes at Holkham then do come on my Hidden Passages and Servants’ Stairs Tours, which runs every Wednesday 11am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3pm throughout October. Find out more here, and keep an eye out for the next library update!