Waking up the House Petworth House: The Big Spring Clean

In an idyllic Sussex landscape, created by master gardener Capability Brown,

sits one of Britain's finest stately homes - Petworth House.

Thanks to the National Trust, it's now open to us all,

except during winter when, like most of the Trust's homes, Petworth shuts the public out.

When the house is closed, however, it's far from quiet.

Normally nobody gets to see what happens here during the winter months.

But, this year, I've been given unique, privileged access

to see what really goes on behind the scenes.

When the public has gone, the National Trust's expert conservation teams

get the chance to do some housekeeping on an epic scale.

We get to see things up close that people don't see.

It's amazing. Who else gets to do it?

I had no idea until I took on this task

quite how filthy the visitors were.

And THIS winter, Petworth's had a new cleaner.

-I can see that I've made a difference.

-Have you waxed it?

-No.

It's been a rare chance to get hands on with history...

Ooh, it's heavy.

..and glimpse the secret life of a great country house.

On my final visit, it's time to wind things up.

I'll be dealing with some uninvited guests...

before getting the house ready for more welcome visitors.

I'm nearing the end of, perhaps, the biggest spring clean in the world,

which has all been taking place during the freezing months of winter.

It's early March, and my winter at Petworth is drawing to a close.

In less than a fortnight, the house will once again open up to the public.

Before the visitors arrive, however, there's still some conservation work to complete.

We're now moving onwards and upwards...to the bedrooms.

Oh, wow! I'm just admiring the bed.

Yes, it's amazing, isn't it?

Petworth's State Bed dates from the 1750s.

It's such a masterpiece of English Rococo, it's been exhibited at the V&A.

I mean, that's a sculpture, it's not a bed.

I love the Rococo style, it's so incredibly ornate, isn't it?

-Oh, it is.

-Well, you've got ostrich feathers, gilding everywhere,

you've even got a tree on the top of it! It's extraordinary.

Apparently, the dowager Lady Edgremont kept an owl in her room

-which used to nest in the branches of that tree.

-What a great image.

-Oh, it's beautiful.

-Mind you, it doesn't look too comfortable.

It doesn't, does it, no.

In one of the other 26 bedrooms, instead of giving the furniture the usual careful dusting,

the team are pulling it to pieces.

-Why are we taking it to bits?

-Because I want to look underneath.

-We want to see what's underneath?

-Yeah.

-All right.

-We go end on in.

-Mm-hm.

Well, there's nothing there!

Yes, there is, there's lots there.

Can you see all these little white bits?

That's the cases of a case-bearing clothes moth.

-Eugh!

-The adult moths lay their eggs in the carpet

and they hatch out into little tiny white caterpillars with a black head

-and that's the bit that does the damage.

-Ugh!

-Yeah, that is...

-It's alive!

-It is!

-I thought they were all sort of hibernating.

-Well, some of them have, that's actually a larva.

-That is the smallest vandal I've ever seen.

-Yes, but you should see the damage they do...

I mean, they will decimate this carpet.

In a place like this, with all these fantastic wall carpets,

and these great big pieces of old furniture on top, underneath them is just the right place

-for bugs like this, for the moths.

-So the perfect microclimate for them to prosper and flourish.

Exactly, they crawl in, lay their eggs, and, um, hence, you get this sort of thing.

I mean, a carpet like this, if you were to leave it in a room, and pull it up after four or five years,

you wouldn't have an awful lot of carpet to pull up. Because this would just come up in sort of shreds.

-They munch it that fast?

-Yes, they do.

-You'll hoover this?

-Yep, I will.

-So the moral of the story is - a regularly hoovered carpet gathers no moths!

-Exactly.

'One thing I've definitely learned during my winter at Petworth -

'the answer to almost any conservation problem is a vacuum cleaner.'

Really hard. You won't get rid of them otherwise.

'Hoovering doesn't just dispose of insects and their eggs.

'It also removes the dirt and dust which are a food source for many pests.'

Here you go. And there's a whole load here. Here you go.

There's some down here as well. You've got lots here. Here you go.

Here you are, you missed some, some here. Here you go. There you go. Some here. And here.

-That's quite satisfying.

-It's very satisfying.

'The Trust estimates that 90% of pest control can be done through good housekeeping.'

So why don't you, um, why don't you put chemicals down? Why do you just hoover?

Once we're open, we have a lot of visitors, also you've got people like us working in the house all the time.

And the chemicals are just too strong, too dangerous.

Infestations are a growing problem due to climate change.

Milder temperatures mean more frequent breeding cycles,

something the National Trust has picked up from the monitoring it does.

-What are these, then?

-They are bug traps.

These we have all round the house, we check them once a week, and,

we put them underneath things, in corners, against the edges of the walls,

and things just literally blunder along and blunder into them.

That's what these ramps are for.

They're not to get rid of the bugs, but your way of measuring how many bugs you're getting?

That's right, it gives us an indication of what's there.

If we find far too many on a trap, then we know we've got a problem.

-So this is a sort of bug diary...

-Yeah.

-..for that room.

So for the first couple of months, there was nothing, it was probably too cold in the bedrooms,

and then in June as it started to warm up, you've got a woolly bear and a clothes moth.

-Sorry, a woolly bear?

-Yeah.

-What's woolly bear?

They're the larvae of a variegated carpet beetle.

I have to say I'm a little bit underwhelmed.

These days you hoover them all up.

-What did they do in the past to discourage...?

-They'd have been scrupulously clean.

The housemaids would have come in regularly every morning to clean the rooms on a daily basis,

but when the family shut up the house for, say, the summer,

that gave the servants in the house there the real golden opportunity to clean the house from top to bottom.

They took the curtains down, they took all the loose covers off,

they moved the carpets, took them out and beat them.

-That was their equivalent of our closed season.

-Yeah!

When visitors return to Petworth, they'll expect to see and hear its historic clocks keeping time.

Horologist Jonathan Betts has come to train conservation assistant Anna

on her winding technique, and school her in the right terminology.

Many people refer to them as grandfather clocks

and the term came from the Victorian parlour song

My Grandfather's Clock.

We pedantic horologists prefer to call them

by the term that the original clockmakers might have used,

and one of those was long-cased clock.

Whatever name you give it, this clock is unarguably the most precious in Petworth,

created by the father of British clockmaking, Thomas Tompion, in 1713.

It needs winding just once a month.

What sort of performance is it giving at the moment?

Well, we've been keeping a record, and it's gaining sort of around 50 minutes to an hour...

-Wow.

-..every month.

-Every month.

-Yeah, every month, not a week.

Which is about, roughly, two minutes a day,

so although it might sound a lot, actually, that's not out of the way.

-Is it consistent in doing that?

-It is, yeah.

OK, that sounds like something that can be regulated out.

Before making any adjustments, Jonathan first checks

whether key parts of the clock's movement have dried out.

Surprisingly the wheels themselves of the clock are not oiled.

But the pivots which run in the frame of the clock

must have sound lubricant in them,

otherwise the clock will wear very quickly.

And this one seems to be actually quite sound.

He also discovers a scorch mark and stain on the back board.

But they're nothing to get too wound up about.

There's a wonderful old tradition of clockmakers,

looking at movements, in olden days shall we say, not having a torch,

but having a candle, and you often see little puddles of candle wax.

Satisfied that the clock's still in good working order after 300 years,

Jonathan can now fine tune its timekeeping.

So we've established that the clock is gaining

-two minutes a day.

-Yeah.

-OK, you have to remember

that a long pendulum beats more slowly than a short pendulum,

so, a clock that's gaining, if you want to make it keep time,

you have to make that pendulum a bit longer.

So the way to do that is to lower the pendulum bob at the bottom of the pendulum.

So, let's do that. Now, when you're doing it,

do hold the bob quite firm, don't pull down too hard

because you'll stress the pendulum suspension spring.

And then turn this. One whole turn will give you 30 seconds a day change,

so we want four complete turns.

..three...four... There we are.

So that, in theory, should now make the clock keep precisely accurate time.

Finally, he runs Anna through the winding technique.

Every timepiece has its own eccentricities - this clock is wound anti-clockwise.

As you're winding watch the weight as it comes up.

Be aware of the general feeling of the winding,

and the sounds it makes. This is why it's so important

to be familiar with the clocks, and be a regular winder,

because you know what's normal and what's not normal.

And then you take the weight up

so that it's just below the position of the seat board underneath the clock.

Now it's a question of, um, setting the clock correctly.

Let's say it's going to be 1:20pm. So we'll...

BELL RINGS ..take the hands forward.

Now in general, you're not really supposed to move hands backwards.

It's generally a good rule NOT to put hands backwards.

And then when you see on the clock that it's exactly 20 past

you then simply let, let it go. And if you just pull your hand away,

it will naturally start to move without shock.

Meanwhile, in the Square Dining Room,

Tom and I have been brought to our knees.

It's actually the last job we usually do in all the rooms,

um, and that's because we're in here, walking across these floors

while we do our work.

We're applying a mixture of beeswax and paraffin.

The narrowness of the area to be treated

would make the use of a machine here awkward.

So this is the best way to apply it, so, you know, welcome to life of a housemaid.

I think I've got housemaid's knee already.

Only in the 19th century did waxing become a standard treatment for floors.

There are accounts that, um, before they were using wax

they were actually using a mixture of, um, sand and water.

So, kind of as an abrasive solution to actually,

to get the grain up to a nice colour and get the dirt off.

So that's almost like, um,

how they used to clean ships' decks in old times,

-to strip it back.

-Yeah, it is similar to that,

whereas now we're actually applying a protective layer over top.

An early housekeeping manual suggests rubbing boards

with "tansy, mint, balm and fennel, using a long hard brush".

It went on to claim that would make the wood look "like mahogany, of a fine brown",

though it would also make it smell like shampoo.

Once the wax has had time to soak into the floorboards,

they then need to be buffed, with a woollen cloth.

'This intensive application of elbow grease

'isn't just so that the floor will look shiny.'

It's also providing a sealing layer to the floor so we're actually protecting the floor,

um, and giving the, um, wooden boards protection

from people walking over them, so that they'll last longer.

I say, you're very, very effective at this.

-We may employ you on the rest of the floors.

-Don't say that!

-OK, I'll be less effective then.

-THEY LAUGH

We've only got five days left before the house reopens,

and one of the busiest weeks of the whole closed season still lies ahead.

The grand state rooms of Petworth are not yet in a fit state to receive visitors.

They've been enjoying a rest from the things which harm historic artefacts -

daylight, dust, humidity, heat,

and the side effects of hordes of people.

It's taken our seven-strong team four-and-a-half months

to conserve and cover up these ten showpiece historical interiors.

And now that we've finally finished, guess what?

It's time to take the wraps off again and give the house back to the public.

Our first task is to open blinds which have been drawn since November.

# Here comes the sun, little darling

# Here comes the sun

# And I say, it's all right... #

When you open it up you feel like

it's the first time you've seen the house in ages.

You're uncovering it, letting the light in,

you can really see the rooms, and it's quite exciting.

It feels like a very long time since I was able to look from

the Turner paintings of the park to the actual park.

It's great, it's, you know, it brings the room alive again.

I've got a feeling like I'm a little mole blinking in the light.

Curtains don't just need to be opened, they also have to be perfectly displayed.

-Little bit more.

-More?

Bit more. Keep going. Stop!

Steady... Go up a bit. Keep going, keep going.

'As ever, this task is a lot more complicated in a historic setting

'than it would be in the average home.'

-I feel like I'm adjusting the house's skirts.

-Keep going.

-Bit more.

-Yeah.

The drapes in the Somerset Room each have four tassels controlling different parts of the whole.

-Bit more. Lovely. Tie them off now.

-Tie them off.

-Pull that one but hold that one so that you can guide it upwards.

-Right.

Ooh, I see what you mean. Boy, how far do I let it up?

-Oh, just to the other side of that shutter.

-Ah... I do feel like a vampire!

-THEY LAUGH

-Ah! Am I going to turn to ashes?

-It's bright, isn't it!

We haven't seen that for a long time, have we?

Ah, isn't it wonderful? It's like the house is waking up.

The team needs to work in daylight during this final week,

so we can see everything in the conditions soon to be experienced by the visitors.

All we've so lovingly cleaned is about to be exposed to public scrutiny once more.

Time to undrape the statuary.

Is there a knack to doing this?

Avoid any parts of the statue that might be sticking out, in case there's loose fingers or anything.

We don't want to lose a finger. So we don't go like that.

-We don't. No, no.

-It's more of a gentle striptease.

Dust free... Ready for the new season's sprinkling of dust.

It might not look like the most time-consuming of tasks,

but remember, we need to undress 116 of these sculptures.

And that's not counting the chapel's ornamental urns,

baroque altar, and eagle-headed lectern.

I think there's something really magical about taking the covers off these incredible objects.

No-one's looked at this object for four months now,

and what's underneath these covers is one of the greatest treasures of Petworth House.

It's the Leconfield Aphrodite.

It's 2,500 years old, created by the Greek sculptor Praxiteles, and here she is...

Isn't that a fantastic object? Absolutely amazing.

Think of all the things that she's seen.

She's been here since 1755. The only thing about her that isn't original is her nose,

which was added in the 18th century before she came to Petworth.

Before that, her history is a complete mystery.

We don't know what happened in the intervening 2,200 years.

I mean, Plato may have gazed into those rather enigmatic stone eyes.

And now 100,000 National Trust visitors are going to come and see her in West Sussex.

I wonder what she makes of it all.

Looking at her reminds me of just why it's so important the job that we've all been doing here,

because we've conserved these objects so that they can live for as long as possible.

And if ever there was a thing in the whole collection

that reminded me of the ancient Roman phrase "ars longa vita brevis",

"life is short but art is long" - it's her.

Only when all the covers are off can we start to bring back

the many fragile items which were stored out of harm's way for the winter.

Sue and I are shifting the family silver.

They are quite heavy. There you go.

So, what's happened to the usual, um, acid free tissue paper,

-why have we got these?

-Ah, well, silver gets these special bags

which is kind of impregnated with a silver polish,

-so it stops it tarnishing while it's in store.

-We haven't actually polished these, have we?

-No.

Every time you clean metal, you're taking a very thin layer of the top surface off,

so a very soft metal like silver here,

we wouldn't clean every year, just because we want to reduce that,

especially when you have this fantastic detail.

-They're amazing.

-Things like the engraving of the 3rd Earl's coat of arms

would be very vulnerable to over-polishing.

-What date are these?

-They're early 19th century, they're by Paul Storr,

-who is the English silversmith.

-People talk about silver-smithery, in a sense something like this

-is really a sculptural object, isn't it?

-Oh, it's beautiful, yes.

-I love these ram's heads.

And then these fantastic grapes hanging down which signal the fact that these are wine coolers.

And you can see why with this fantastic detailing

we don't want to clean it too much, just because that vulnerability of wearing away this kind of detail

-of these leaves and...

-Sure.

-..and these fantastic borders.

So you just very gently clean it once every, every other year?

Kind of, yeah, about every two to three years we tend to do silver

using very fine silver dip and it's with a cotton bud,

so really small so that you can get into these areas and making sure that you don't over-polish.

Just my luck it's not, not the year to do it.

A piece like this would take a good couple of hours.

-Maybe, maybe...

-Per piece.

-Maybe I got off lightly.

But even in the midst of all this last minute busyness,

there's still time for one final tea break.

Tada! And having eaten so many cakes baked by the rest of the team

over the last few months, I thought I ought to contribute one.

ALL GASP

Before we eat it, somebody's going to have to hoover it.

As you can see it's actually a very, very complicated piece of cake.

As well as celebration, there's understandable pride.

The house has come full circle.

I get a sense of well-being from putting everything back -

the Chippendale chairs being in the right position,

putting the ceramics out, the drawers are in the Boulle, everything's in its place,

then I feel you can go home and, "Aah! Everything's as it should be."

You look at the house now, it all looks perfectly, the smell of polish is in the air,

isn't there this, in a sense, a slight sinking feeling

-"Oh, no, the people are now going to come in and undo everything"?

-That's why we do it.

I've spent four months cleaning this house so it looks great for every day that people walk through the door.

You get house-proud. It's like when you have guests coming to your own house,

you want it to look spic and span and for people to come in and go, "Wow, this is lovely."

It's what we do, it's what we're here for,

and to show people what we have here.

That's the thing about this house, this is a house that was always meant, partly to be lived in,

-but largely to be seen. A toast.

-Oh, absolutely!

-To the end of the winter's work.

-ALL: Cheers.

By the middle weekend of March, spring has arrived

and so, at last, has the day when Petworth reopens.

Inside, the house is wearing its public face once more.

It looks proud, pristine...perfect.

So, Jacky, it's half past ten, only half an hour to go.

There's an eerie calm before the hordes descend.

-There's something quite magical about this moment.

-It's the best time of the year in many ways,

because the place is clean, it looks great,

there's that peace and quiet before the volunteers come in and then the visitors.

But there's a little bit of sadness mixed in with it for me,

cos, yes, the curtains have come up, the people are going to come in

-but you've got to let go of it.

-That's right.

-It's not ours any more!

All too swiftly, the hour comes when we do have to share Petworth again.

There's no arguing with Thomas Tompien's handiwork - it's keeping perfect time again.

You going to take that sign off?

-It's official.

-We're open.

-We're open!

-We are.

All we need now are some visitors. And I think I can see them.

First visitors of the year.

-Good morning! Congratulations.

-Welcome, do you realise the significance of this day?

-Do you know that you are the very, very first visitors...

-We do.

-..of the season?

-We do.

-I joined the National Trust so I'm now a fully paid-up member.

-Yes.

-Thank you.

-Good on you. Good on you.

-Thank you.

-Enjoy.

The visitors are soon streaming in thick and fast.

More than 500 people turn up on this first day.

There's clearly a real hunger to enjoy a place that's been out of bounds for so long.

Over the last few months, however, I've learned that along with the public come problems.

I found myself watching people going in and out of the house

with a slightly fearful and disapproving eye thinking how much dust are they taking in,

are they going to ruin my beautifully polished floors

that I've been working on for all those months?

But fear not, because in true National Trust style they've got a whole system

worked out for every house. Here we've got the hedgehog,

this is your preliminary de-dusting mechanism,

and then, you need to have exactly three metres

of this coconut fibre dust-removing doormat, fantastic.

And then, if by any chance there should still remain a few traces of dust on your footwear,

there's a back-up doormat here in the hall.

It's strange for me suddenly to see so many people in the spaces

I've had almost to myself throughout the winter.

And it's frankly galling to realise

few of them give a second thought to the work we've been doing here.

-Seen the unicorn up at the top?

-Yes.

-You know, I, I, I cleaned that.

-THEY LAUGH

-You think I'm joking.

-Yes.

I've been up on a scaffolding.

If you could be up there, it's speckless.

Of course the proof of successful conservation work is generally that people DON'T notice it

even if I would like them to know.

I cleaned that.

Did you really?

Hogs hair brush.

-Did you really?

-Do you not believe me?

-No.

It's true! I'm particularly proud of the devil's bottom.

I think that's come up lovely.

It has come up very nicely!

So it's official, the house is open and now it belongs to them again - the people.

Which brings up the paradox that it has to be closed for four months

so that it can be restored to a state of pristine cleanliness.

But at end of that process, the Great British public comes in again

and begins exposing it again to the causes of decay

that I've learned so much about - dust, light and so on.

And I think there always has to be that balance

between conserving and opening up,

between looking after and looking at.

Getting that balance right is the biggest challenge

which faces the custodians of our national heritage,

a challenge I've now experienced at first hand.

Having been involved in the winter conservation,

I have to say I had no idea

of the sheer amount of expertise, passion, love, work involved.

But what a satisfying job it's been,

and I do feel a real sense of pride to have played my own small part

in preserving this true masterpiece of the past for future generations.

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