Due to staff shortages in our catering team (congratulations to our Head Chef who has just gone on paternity leave), over the weekends of the 11th/12th and 18th/19th May we will be serving BBQ food only from outside our Stables Restaurant, as well as cakes, sandwiches and ice cream in our cafe. A limited menu will also be available from Monday to Friday over the next two weeks. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
The job of the gardens team is always wide and varied but over the last couple of weeks we have all been working in the house to get some of the restoration work underway. Happily this has coincided with an awful lot of wet weather so the job couldn't be better timed!
Over years of Somerset fire brigade and the County Council residing in the house it has become very 'officey' - lots of carpet tiled rooms, suspended ceilings etc. Our first job is to see what is going on under the carpet tiles and get the first floor up and ready for an art show opening in May.
All of the carpet tiles are glued down so the first job is to lift them all up.
The tiles are then sorted into what to keep and what to throw.
Once they were lifted we were left with a very sticky layer of ply board, but once the ply was removed we found some pretty decent floorboards.
The floor boards will need sanding down but before that we have to remove hundreds of tiny staples from them.
It is quite a job but as soon as the floors are done work can start on sorting out the 70's style electric strip lights and giving the walls a lick of paint.
The electricians also have a big job ahead. As the fire brigades previous headquaters there is an awful lot of electric and data cable to remove.
It's a dusty, dirty job but it has saved the team from a few wet days!
