Winter is always a race to get some repairs and maintenance in before we open again in the spring. But there is never really a good time, as we continue to have film shoot inquiries throughout the year. This winter, thanks to some good film bookings last year – and the welcome return of Liam Gallagher – we have been able to make a sufficient donation to the Knebworth House Education and Preservation Trust that the charity has felt able to tackle the urgent problem of a brace of disintegrated chimneys at the southern end of the house. The only thing holding these 1880s chimneys together is the twisting vines of Virginia creeper.
We aimed to get the scaffold up before Christmas and down before a film booking in February. Of course what happens is that when you are up there and you pick away the broken stucco and dissolved brick, you find that the problem goes much deeper than is apparent on the surface. Should you – while you have the scaffold up – try and find some more money and fix the problem below? But that would mean extending the scaffold hire into the film booking. The film company has not booked a house with one corner covered in scaffold.
It’s a dilemma we’ve faced before, and one we’ll face again. We need the work to pay for future problems, so future problems are noted and covered up for another day. The scaffold comes down with only the absolutely necessary work completed. Two steps forward, one step back. But I have learnt to look at scaffold as a positive thing.
Scaffold = Progress.
Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH