Muck, museums and magic dust

It’s hard running a museum with just volunteers and worse when you have no guarantee of a permanent home. Three Rivers museum in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, has twice had to close because its landlord, the local district council, has needed the space. And then in 2002 it got struck by lightning and did not reopen for 14 months. It’s only thanks to the museum’s chair, Barbara Owen and a dedicated team of volunteers that the museum remains open … at least for now.

Victorian values: Leavesden mental hospital display, Three Rivers Museum, Rickmansworth

On average it attracts six visitors a day (it’s only open 2-4 pm on weekdays and 10am-4 pm on Saturdays), but there are busier times with school parties and organised groups. Numbers are often swelled on the last Saturdays of April through to October by a free guided walking tour of the nearby Croxley Great barn, a colossal 14th-century wooden edifice that once stored grain for the growing population of monks and nuns in the St Albans diocese. “When you go in there and see the workmanship, it’s like a cathedral inside,” said Barbara.

Enter the museum – an Georgian-era house once attached to William Penn’s home (now demolished) – and you walk straight into its three adjoining, ground-floor rooms covering everything from the horn of a mammoth/woolly elephant (they’re not sure which) to the demolition of the town’s old Swan pub and the history of that grimmest of Victorian mental institutions, Leavesden Hospital. There is so much to exhibit but not enough space. “We could fill the whole building with artifacts,” said the museum’s safety officer, Martin Pinder.

Buy your meat here: former Chorleywood butcher's pay booth on display at the museum

However, Saturdays pose a another problem – the museum is open over lunchtime and visitors will insist on taking in food, drink – and grime. “They don’t think they can be there two hours without bringing in a coffee and cake,” said Barbara. “But all this gets dropped and you need someone to pick it up.” The room has a carpet that gets regularly spotted with coffee stains and mud. “We don’t have hordes, but with just two or three people coming in they still bring the dirt from outside.”

The museum had tried wet cleaning and had to close during opening hours as it took so long to dry. But then Barbara recommended Debi king of Natural Home Clean, a dry cleaner she had used at home. “She was so thorough and quick. We could go on the carpet more or less straight away after she’d finished.

No need to buy a new carpet: Barbara Owen, chair, Three Rivers Museum, Rickmansworth

“The state of my house was not bad but it just needed whatever bits you can’t get off with washing-up liquid removed. One of my cleaner’s claims is: don’t buy a new carpet, get us in first. I agree. She made it look like new.

“I had a wet cleaner once. He’d put his bucket down and after he had gone I found it had marked the floor. He came back and still couldn’t clear it. But my dry cleaner did!”

The state of the museum’s carpet after dry cleaning amazed the safety officer.” I couldn’t believe the difference,” said Martin. “There’d been a horrible brown, speckled mess and suddenly she had come up with the bright colour [of light beige]!”

Roman coins and stain-free carpets on show at Three Rivers museum after a visit from dry carpet cleaner Natural Home Clean

The cleaner had come in after the museum had closed for the day. There was no water; she had simply “sprinkled stuff that smelled of lemon all over the museum floor and vacuumed it up with a heavy-duty vacuum cleaner”, according to one volunteer. And closing during opening hours was never an option – it was open next day. The carpets were clean, dry and ready to walk on.

For a free quotation, please contact Debi on 07967 372005, (office) 01296 319744, or email naturalhomeclean@yahoo.co.uk