Conservation is not about preserving in aspic, certainly not about creating a nationwide network of museums. Each place or artefact is unique and deserves to be handed on to future generations in as good and vibrant a condition as possible. The skills and cultural heritage which they represent should also continue to thrive and be made available to the public to whom they belong.
Recent debates in National Trust movements and also in English Heritage and Historic Scotland confirm the high profile conservation will continue to have in spite if future changes and financial restrictions.
At Brodie Castle, frequently voted the National Trust for Scotland’s friendliest property, conservation was the byword during a recent major renovation of the private wing. Now completed the Laird’s Apartment, as it is now called, is available for holiday letting for parties of up to fourteen people. During the upheaval many items had to be packed away for protection or sent for restoration.
Restoring Paintings
Paintings have had particular attention but renovating these is horribly expensive. Once done they should not need attention for centuries, especially now that smoking indoors is forbidden. The Scottish Colourists, once cleaned, should be brought into in the public wing. Visitors, while disappointed at their absence, do feel gratified when they learn that it is their money, paid at the door, which pays for the skilled work required.
Most of the more modern paintings were bought by Ian Brodie, (the daffodil breeder,) or more precisely by his wife, Violet, an artist herself. She claimed that she never paid more than £20 for a painting, a good price at the time for struggling artists. But she knew what she was buying; there are so many worth showing that collections are rotated in the Picture Room, the main gallery in the oldest part of the castle.
Conserving Library Collections
The library of 6500 books is one of the finest in Scotland in its breadth of interest, language and age. A glance tells us how well read these books were. All are catalogued, but many need renovation which is a long and costly process. On a simpler level, book cleaning is an essential and regular part of their maintenance and volunteers deal with this over most winters.
The library floor is below the outside ground level. There is, in fact, no damp course, because when originally built this area was intended for general outside storage. As a result humidity is a constant threat and a dehumidifier wheezes day and night in the corner. If damp does appear, or bookworms are detected, all the books are enclosed in a giant baloon filled with carbon dioxide for a few weeks, necessarily during the closed season.
Protective Measures Against Light and Damp
Protection is a major element in the work of conservation. Light, extremes of heat and cold and too much or too little moisture in the air - which is influenced by the ambient temperature - can be destructive. As a result all the important rooms at the National Trust for Scotland’s Brodie Castle are provided with small sensors which transmit atmospheric measurements to a central computer. Light damage affects not only paintings, especially water colours, but also other furnishings, creating the beginning of disintegration in soft materials and book spines and causing bleaching of wood and carpets. To mitigate this, the special blinds used in many properties are raised only on dull days.
Temperature is controlled to minimise its variation, especially sudden or extreme changes which is particularly bad for wood glues. Also, throughout the castle a humidity of between 50% and 65% is maintained; by and large, what is comfortable for humans is also right for books and furniture. The nature of soft fabrics makes them more perishable and they are inevitably given a lower priority in conservation terms, but this makes it all the more essential that antique bedding or embroideries should never be handled.
Damage from Footwear to Floors and Carpets
Until recently visitors could walk on the 1851 Drawing Room carpet, now protected by druggets. Many heritage properties forbid stiletto heels but many people do not realise that walking boots and some trainers may also lead to damage. Dirt and small stones caught between cleats drop out for others to grind into the floor. When the wearer of deeply indented non-slip soles turns this causes them to pull and create a circular tension on fragile carpet threads.
As greater knowledge of this danger becomes understood, more people bring light shoes in their pockets. Brodie, like most properties, keeps a stock of spare slip-ons for visitors to use. Dirt-grabbing mats can also help, although these can exacerbate damp in old stone floors.
Protecting and Using Archives
In the tiny muniment room off the Red Drawing Room, not normally seen by the public, is one of Scotland’s most important family archives. Protecting the contents in acid free boxes and tissue for the often fragile papers is yet another expense which must be met out of castle revenues from the public.
Apart from the 1311 Bruce letter in the library any material pre-dating 1645, when the castle was sacked, comes from archives elsewhere. The first Lord Brodie wrote about it in his famous seventeenth century diaries. All subsequent lairds were good record keepers, preserving letters, inventories and work sheets. Together these provide fascinating windows into past eras in Moray.
Sources: Brodie Castle Archives;
'mission statements' from National Trust for Scotland.
See other articles in suite101 on Brodie Castle by Margaret Woodward
Margaret Woodward - Born into a farming family in north east Scotland I graduated from Aberdeen University and headed for London to work in the Oxford ...
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