
- Conservation in action
Woolshed conservation: removing the collection
The woolshed is a long, timber slab structure located just behind the house, one of the estate’s surviving farm buildings from the 19th century. It was built for Edwin Rouse, the estate’s second owner, probably in the late 1850s. Following similar work over recent years to other timber structures, the woolshed will be undergoing significant structural conservation later this year. First though several thousand objects need to be removed, cleaned and, in the case of organic material including timber, leather and textiles, deep frozen at -20C to stop any insect activity.
A team of seven has been working through the piles of machinery, car parts, furniture, tools, ropes, sacks and farm equipment – everything that you’d expect to find in an old farm shed. This stage of the larger project is also giving us the opportunity to expand on our collection records, adding photographs and descriptions of objects that tell us much of life on the estate. Along with any archaeological material that might be revealed under the timber floors, we anticipate evidence will be discovered to tell us what this farm structure was actually designed and built for. Its name, the ‘woolshed’, derives from a boyhood memory of Edwin Stephen Rouse of having seen wool being stored and repacked there, passed down through the next three generations.





















1. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.
The pigeon coop at the north end of the woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

2. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.
Internal view showing the overhead drive shafts that once powered a range of machinery. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

3. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.
A collection of tools in the tack room. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

4. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.
The ‘tool room’ at the woolshed’s southern end. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

5. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.
A watering can, street sign and the lid of an old timber barrel can be seen in the tool room. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

6. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.
A complex jumble of material, from boxes and ironmongery to rope and a corn thresher. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

7. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.
The thresher cleared and ready for removal. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

8. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.
Once their positions are recorded and individual objects are removed, they are cleaned and sorted for storage. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

9. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.
Metal objects ready for storage. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

10. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate
A pile of timber from under a bench, cleaned and reassembled into a balustrade. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

11. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate
A steamer trunk in the tool room ready to be removed. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

12. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate
The steamer trunk cleaned, and ready to be sealed for deep freezing. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

13. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate
A 1930s radio case emptied of its mechanism and recycled as shelving.

14. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate
The same radio removed and cleaned, ready for freezing. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

15. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.
A suitcase with a richly coloured purple lining being brush-vacuumed. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

16. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.
A long feed trough being cleaned. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

17. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.
The woolshed contents includes furniture, such as these easy chairs. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

18. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.
A long-discarded typewriter sits amongst wrenches, sheers and an old knife-box in the toolroom. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

19. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.
A box containing over a dozen files, and the round glass door of a clock, cleaned and photographed to update the collection accession records. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.

20. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.
Inside the deep freezer, where all organic materials are frozen at -20 degrees Celsius for a week to destroy any insect activity. Woolshed, Rouse Hill Estate.