Conservators at work in the Townend library. ©National Trust
I recently spotted this image of a trio of book conservators seemingly completely absorbed in their work at Townend, in Cumbria (via the National Trust Libraries and NTTownend Facebook pages).
A selection of improving books from the Townend library. ©NTPL/Graham Edwards Photography 2004
Caroline Bendix is compiling a database recording details of existing damage to the books, Helen Golding Miller is carrying out small repairs in situ and Nicholas Pickwoad is looking at the volumes that need to go away for studio conservation.
Townend's vernacular Lake District architecture. ©NTPL/Matthew Antrobus
This project has been made possible by a £40,000 grant from the Wolfson Foundation, with match funding from the National Trust.
Title page of an anti-slavery tract published in 1817, in the library at Townend. ©NTPL/Graham Edwards Photography 2004
Townend is a rare survival of a Cumbrian yeoman farmhouse dating from the seventeenth century.
The kitchen at Townend. ©NTPL/Rob Talbot
The house was inhabited by the Browne family for over four hundred years. They were sheep farmers who prospered through careful management and advantageous marriages.
Pages from 'The Merry Musician; or a Cure for the Spleen', published in 1716, in the Townend library. ©NTPL/Graham Edwards Photography 2004
The house contains the gradual, evocative accretion of posessions. The small library is a fascinating record of the interests and preoccupations of successive generations of the family.
