To many of you it must seem as though the hard work at Dunfield House occurs only when large groups are in residence. You may think that Dunfield hibernates through the winter and that little happens there until the next year’s bookings start to come in. How wrong can you be? When we have “windows” as we call them, when no group is using the facility, we can get work done and then it is all hands to the grindstone!

This winter the Mews bedrooms, stairs, lounges and landing have all been redecorated. We have carried out a full spring-clean of the house and mews (curtains and bed-covers cleaned, beds washed down etc.) Six internal walls where plaster was “blowing” have been “top-hatted” and redecorated. (If you don’t know what this means ask the House Manager, Fred Crane about silver-backing next time you see him!)

Two new chlorination units have been installed, one for the house and one for the pool. The final stage of the major electrical re-wiring has been completed – you may not see much evidence of this as you walk around the house, but you would have if you had come in December or January! New chandelier light fittings now grace the main dining room and there are new wall lights in the hall-way, but these are just the outward indication of new wires and trunking buried in walls, under floors and wherever the ingenuity of electricians could manage!

The clean up after all this work was horrendous – even the optimist in Fred wondered if they would ever get the place clean again – and the main dining room was swept and mopped at least five times in succession before it was anything like satisfactory! Staff at Dunfield found skills they didn’t even know they had, and one or two wield a mean paint brush! Of course there was a lot of making good necessary in hall, dining rooms 1 and 2, kitchen and washroom and the last two have also undergone a major redecoration as well.

Our in-house chippie has made and fitted a new door for the middle dining room (others still to be done) and all panic-bars on emergency doors have been replaced. (No more fighting with that chapel door to open it and then to close it again!) The new bars work smoothly as they should.

The fire alarm system is being up-rated and will be fully in place in March, when also we shall take delivery of 78 new mattresses. (Even accepting those, putting them into place and getting rid of the old ones is a mountain of work in itself.) We have new duvets - 13.5 tog - to put on the new mattresses.

New stationery, a new web-site, it’s all been happening at Dunfield House this winter – but some of the things we had hoped to do are still undone. We are still awaiting planning permission to do much of the enhancement work that will be made possible by recent legacies. So you still won’t see, when you next come to Dunfield, the disabled toilet, increased shower facilities, wheel-chair ramps etc. that are planned. Ah, well! - but chandeliers, top-hats and silver backing – they are all there.

News Archive:

Dunfield House - June 2006

Dunfield House - Spring/Summer 2006

Dunfield House - Winter 2005/2006

Dunfield House - Winter/Spring 2004/2005

Dunfield House - Winter 2003/2004

Windows and Dunfield – a conversation

Dunfield House - Winter 2002/2003