Making improvements at Charlecote Park

June 2023 - ongoing

Preserving Granny's Summerhouse

Last year, in 2023, we've invested in work to rethatch the roof on 'Granny's Summerhouse'.

Originally built by the Victorian owner Mary Elizabeth Lucy for her children and grandchildren, the Summerhouse is a Grade II listed building nestled in the formal gardens next to the Orangery café. 

The rethatching took place over three weeks, at the start of the summer and marks the start of a longer-term project to preserve the Grade II listed building over several years. The new roof will make the structure watertight and allow conservation experts to carry out surveys to assess the next conservation steps that are needed to preserve it so it can continue to be enjoyed for future generations. 

With the help of volunteers, the team have created a special Summerhouse pinbadge to help raise money for the remaining works which include repairing damage to the stained-glass windows, conserving the interior of the building - including the panelling and silk ceiling covers - and repairing the exterior larch cladding and some structural timbers.

Visitors can purchase a pin badge from the Visitor Reception or one of the shops when visiting Charlecote.

From 2022 - ongoing

A new car park, visitor centre and accessible toilet

We've started work in the car park to improve visitor facilities on arrival. Phase 1 of this project was completed in 2022 and we eagerly await phase two, due to start after 2024.

Phase 1

The work in phase 1 during 2022 has seen us install an all-weather surface to make parking easier for visitors all year round, especially in the winter, and to reduce erosion when it’s wet. Work will start on the new planting plan for this space over the winter and willcontinue over the next few years to support planting trees and hedges in this space.

Phase 2

For phase 2, we’ll complete the resurfacing at the top of the car park and we will also install eight electric vehicle charging points. We also plan to create a new visitor centre and toilets, including a Changing Places accessible toilet. We plan to convert the existing visitor reception building into a more accessible shop.

Work on the new planting plan will also continue in phase 2. These improvements will support our plans to reinstate the original approach to Charlecote through the historic avenue. 

Nov 2021 - June 2023

Replacing the heating system in the house

Work is currently taking place to refurbish the Victorian heating system, throughout the house, offices and outbuildings.

This work will see a new intelligent, conservation-focused heating system installed, along with the refurbishment of the Victorian raditors, with additional replica radiators being added in many spaces to help better control the temperature and humidity in each room. 

The house was closed or much of the collection was packed away in 2022 to allow these works to take place.

All five ground floor showrooms of the house have now reopened from 10.30am - 2.30pm each day by timed ticket, as work has been largely completed in these spaces.

In 2023, the conservation work has now moved into the upper levels of the house, attics and outbuildings, so you may still hear some noise or see some of the collection being moved when you visit. The two upstairs rooms of the house remain closed while this work takes place. Once the work has been completed these rooms will remain closed for a time wile we assess how these rooms can be more easily accessed and enjoyed by our visitors. 

 

Why this work is needed

The current heating system can’t regulate the temperature effectively to control the environment within the house.

This leaves the building and its collection vulnerable to mould, pests and damage caused by fluctuating humidity and temperature (such as cracking, splitting and failure of joints in furniture). 

The new, intelligent heating system will give the collections team greater control over the environment and climate conditions in each room.

 

Conserving the collections

So that the work can take place, the collections team needed to prepare the house and its collection, packing away approximately 4,000 items. Before being packed away, all  the items have been cleaned using special conservation techniques .

The furniture also needed to be moved so that the historic carpets could be rolled, to give access to the floorboards. Even the wall-mounted items  needed protecting from the dust produced by the works, so scaffolding has been erected to access the collections before they were cleaned and covered.  

With no external storage space, the team are still continuing to clean, pack and move items in the upper levels, around the continuing works.

This new heating system will mean that the house and collection can be enjoyed by all for many  years to come. Once it's finished, it will be connected up to the new biomass boiler so it will also reduce our reliance on oil and electricity, helping Charlecote to play its part in the global fight against climate change. 

Nov 2021 - Feb 2023

Protecting the environment by installing a biomass boiler

We're playing our part in tackling climate change by installing a biomass boiler near the Wood Yard café.

The biomass boiler will result in a nett reduction of 140 tonnes of CO2 per year (that’s the equivalent carbon saving as planting around 6,000 trees).

The work started in November 2021 and finished in the early spring of 2023.

The work saw us dig a trench through the service courtyard for the pipes to connect from the new boilers in the outbuildings, to deliver heat to the main house. We worked carefully with archaeologists and conservationists to check and protect the ground and the old cobbles in these spaces.

Twin boilers have also been installed in the outbuildings near the Wood Yard Cafe. Now the work has been completed, there should be will very little to see due to the sympathetic installation. All the pipes are hidden underground, and the new boilers are hidden within an existing building. 

Sustainable energy

The biomass boilers use compressed wood pellets from sustainable sources, which are combusted to generate heat energy. The switch to wood pellets is not only better for the environment but will save money that we can then spend where is it much needed in looking after Charlecote. 

The wood pellets that Charlecote uses are sourced from a certified supplier who creates the pellets out of wood residues and offcuts from sawmills in Scotland. These pellets have the lowest Green House Gas (GHG) emissions score of any product available in the UK.

Wood pellets, grown through sustainable means, are classified as a renewable source of energy because the CO2 released is largely offset by the amount of CO2 it absorbed from the atmosphere while it was growing. 

Nov 2021 - April 2023

Checking the condition of the collections

As the team packed and unpacked the collection for the heating restoration work, they used this opportunity to continue with detailed inventory checks that started in 2019 – but it’s not quite as quick and easy as a simple inventory check list.

This work involved adding details about each item in the collection to a database to improve, update, and enhance core information about each item we care for. There are over 30 things the team needs to check for every single item.

This work is important as we need to know exactly what we’ve got, where it is, who it belongs to, and where it came from. This helps us to learn more about an item’s story and its significance.