BNPS.co.uk (01202 558833)
Pic: ZacharyCulpin/BNPS

Pictured: Conservation cleaners, Helen Pollard (left) and Denise Gibbons, clean the books at Longleat which are among those collected by the 2nd Marquess of Bath, one of Longleat's great collectors and patrons of the arts. The Ante Library was designed for the 2nd Marquess in the early 1800s by Sir Jeffry Wyatville, who remodelled much of Longleat.

Expert conservation cleaners are embarking on their painstaking annual spring clean of one of Britain's finest Elizabethan stately homes.

Longleat House in Wiltshire has 128 rooms containing thousands of historic objects which require careful cleaning using low-suction vacuum cleaners and fine dry brushes.

There are also seven libraries with over 40,000 books which need dusting and repairing.