Video: Notts TV’s Richard Minkley sees if he has what it takes
Staff are working hard at the DH Lawrence Birthplace Museum in Eastwood this week – scrubbing up the artefacts ready for new visitors.
And the centre’s regular deep clean is a little tougher and more technical than many people might expect.
Included in what is known as the spring clean are various artefacts including a precious Victorian porcelain doll.
The biggest task of all, however, is scrubbing a 150-year-old Victorian cooker.
Tour guide Carolyn Melbourne, who gave Notts TV an insight into the process, said: “Black leading needs polishing really and it can buff up to quite a nice shine.
“It’s more to protect the metal from corrosion; we only really need to do it once a year as we don’t use it in the way a Victorian lady would.
“If Lydia Lawrence was stood behind me, I’m sure she’d be rolling her eyes and tutting because she would have done it every week religiously.”
It’s not just the cooker that takes time to get squeaky clean.
Tour guide Christina Webb said: “We have thousands of visitors every year and we have to clean up the mess that they make.
“We also have to apply protective coatings on the artefacts as well because a few of our items in our collection are actually handling artefacts.
“People will be touching them and interacting with them throughout the year.”
The museum, on Victoria Street, was the childhood home to the controversial author and has been preserved and recreated for visitor’s to learn more about his family and career.
After being born at the house on Victoria Street in 1885, Lawrence went on to become one of England’s greatest novelists and poets, writing Sons and Lovers and Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
He died in France in 1930.
