FEATURE
By Peter White
The dust covers had been removed
from thousands of priceless items;
the new staff had been trained to
deal with a plethora of questions;
the windows were spotless, and for
the first time in many years even
chimneys had been swept.
So after its winter hibernation,
the doors of Osborne House were
finally re-opened to the public
for the new season, with close to
250,000 visitors expected to flock
through over the next few months.
As Osborne House curator
Michael Hunter explained: “I have
been here 14 years, and I always
find this the most exciting time –
basically as far as we are concerned
it’s Showtime again!”
But before the visitors arrived,
Island Life delved behind the
scenes – down in the storerooms,
up on the roof, and nearly down a
chimney – for the final part of our
series on Queen Victoria’s former
holiday retreat at East Cowes.
Chimney sweep Dean Ward and
his brother Josh of Newport-based
Corralls were given the task of
cleaning many of the 140 flues at
Osborne, and it was obviously a
job that clearly sounded a lot easier
than it actually was!
Dean, a chimney sweep for 11
years, explained: “It took us about
three weeks, and even then we did
only about 40 chimneys, although
there are some that are never used.
A lot hadn’t been swept for at
least 20 years, and looking at the
condition of others they probably
hadn’t been touched for much
longer – probably 80 years or
more!”
Around 15 chimneys in the
famous Durbar wing of the House
were swept, some of them taking
literally all day to complete because
of their complexities. Dean said:
“They hadn’t been used for such
a long time there wasn’t just soot
but scores of birds’ nests stuck up
them. We swept the chimneys from
the bottom and the top, and the
fireplaces had to be totally taped up
to save all the dust and debris from
getting into the rooms.
“The tallest chimneys are in the
Clock Tower and Flag Tower. They
are about 100ft tall, and with
bends in them it adds to the length.
Some of the chimneys have sweep
access points that you go into, both
on the roof and in the basement.
That allowed a chimney sweep
in Victorian days to go in and
do the work without being seen.
People didn’t want to see sweeps
wandering about the place, and a
lot of chimneys were designed so
the sweep never had to enter the
House.”
After a trip on to the roof of
Osborne, it was down into the
basement to view scores of bronze
and marble statues, porcelain,
paintings and pieces of furniture
that are in storage and rarely seen
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