Montacute House: Saving the Staircases

Aug 2023

Closure of the staircases

A project has been in the pipeline since 2018, when the South stairs was closed, to address the fact that both staircases have deteriorated due to hundreds of years of wear and tear. It was paused due to the Covid pandemic.

As a result of the closure of the South stairs, the additional two-way footfall on the North stairs was having a cumulative impact. Therefore, it was advised that access to these stairs is closely controlled.

National Trust conservation staff and agreed third parties continue to access the first and second floors, when necessary, whilst adhering to the strict guidance that has been issued.

The conservation team have been spending time ‘putting the upper floors to bed’. This involves deep cleaning the historic interiors from top to bottom and then checking and cleaning the furniture and furnishings.  Once this is done, the objects are covered up to protect them from dust accumulation and exposure to light.

Oct 2023

Working with others

Given the long-term nature of the project some lenders, including the National Portrait Gallery, moved their collection items back to their own stores or for display elsewhere.

Nov 2023

Working with others

Due to its exceptional special architectural and historic interest, Montacute House is a Grade 1 listed building. The team engaged with Historic England, including their structural engineers, to find an appropriate structural solution for both staircases.

Jan 2024

The project progresses

A Conservation Condition Report was carried out by conservation accredited architects. This survey looks at the fabric of the whole building and makes expert recommendations about its care. It is carried out on a cyclical basis for all National Trust properties but has been useful at this time to understand the condition of the staircase and the urgency of the repair.

The survey from the Conservation Condition Report was received in February, and reviewed by a Quantity Surveyor.​ It, along with other reports and surveys, fed into discussions on the structural solution for the staircases. These were then developed and worked through with Historic England’s Structural Engineer. The solution will continue to be refined over the coming months.

April 2024

Further testing

To help refine the structural solution for the staircases, dynamic load testing took place in April 2024. The test involves simulating the effects of a dynamic load on a material.  In this case, it simulated the effect of footsteps on the treads and landings. This type of testing is not often carried out on stone steps, but the results will provide a clearer picture of vulnerabilities within the staircases.

Jul 2024

Levelling up on the South Staircase

One of the aims of the project is to ensure protections are in place to prevent future wear of the stone. What that ‘future protection’ looks like is still being researched and tested. However, the South stairs present an additional complication—they are very uneven. The difference in depth is as much as 50mm in places.

In May and June, the project architects worked on proposed solutions to even up the treads and landings. In July, the National Trust Specialist Craft team started testing these. Work continues, so we will keep you up to date with progress. Any solution will have to be approved by English Heritage and the local authorities.

Sep 2024

Refining the solution

Using the results from the tests and investigations over the summer months, the project architects and structural engineers have been refining the solution to support and protect the staircases.  

It is a bespoke solution that has taken many factors into account, including the unique nature of the staircases and the fact the treads and landing are all slightly different to each other. 

The solution involves providing structural support to the treads and landings from underneath, and structural protection from above. Protecting the top of the steps will prevent further wear of the stone, and especially the joints critical to maintaining the integrity of the staircases. 

Further work to develop and test the solution is underway, in consultation with Historic England. 

Nov 2024

Work continues

The solution for repairing the staircases continues to be developed in consultation with Historic England.

Dec 2024 to Jun 2025

Dec 2024 to Jun 2025

During this period extensive consultations took place with Historic England and their Advisory Committee, as well as the Society for Protection for Ancient Buildings and a number of conservation specialists.

The has allowed the solution to be refined so that is sensitive to historic context of Montacute House.

Jul 2025

Jul 2025

Listed building consent  was submitted to the local authority, 

Listed building consent is a type of planning control that protects buildings of special architectural or historical interest. It is required when any alterations, extensions, or demolitions are made to a listed building that affects it character or appearance.

The local authority, in this case Somerset Council, is the body that considers whether to grant or refuse LBC. It is advised the process takes between eight and ten weeks, however, this can vary.

Nov 2025

Nov 2025

On 28 November Listed Building Consent was received from Somerset Council. 

Whilst waiting for the consent, the project moved through the next stage of the National Trust internal governance process. A tender process was also carried out to find a contractor who would be able to install the steel beams underneath the treads and landings.

Dec 2025

Dec 2025

The contractor who will be installing the steel beams was appointed. Daedalus Conservation has previously worked on major National Trust projects including at Cliveden and Castle Drogo.

The Collections & House team have been carrying out enabling works prior to the construction phase beginning. Collection items have been moved from the Lower Clifton Maybank Corridor, with some items going into store and some being displayed in the Drawing Room. Dust protections are being installed to protect the fabric of the building as well. Some elements of this work could have taken place prior to receiving Listed Building Consent but this would have meant more areas of the ground floor being closed to visitors, which we wished to avoid for as long as possible.

Jan 2026

Jan 2026

Construction work for the Saving the Staircases project began in January 2026, marking an exciting step forward.

The specialist contractors, Daedalus Conservation, arrived at the beginning of the month, with their compound set up in part of the overflow car park.

To allow safe access for the team, the West Door is serving as the contractors’ entrance. As a result, heras fencing has been installed outside, and the Lower Clifton Maybank Corridor on the ground floor is currently closed.

Inside the house, extensive dust and surface protection has been put in place to safeguard the corridor as scaffolding was erected on the South Stairs. Creating this scaffold was one of the project’s more complex challenges, due to the narrowness of the staircase and the delicate nature of the landings it rests on.

Feb 2026

Feb 2026

February saw steady progress, with important investigative work helping to shape the next stages of the project.

Part of that was to remove the plaster work around the window lintels on the South staircase to assess their strength as these timber beams need to be able to support the new steelwork beams designed to stabilise the landings. The good news was that the lintels are strong enough to carry the new steels, allowing us to proceed.

It was also discovered that the original 17^th-century builders used green, undried timber for the lintels, which has since shrunk. This caused the Hamstone blocks above to settle slightly—a natural change over four centuries. While not a structural concern, it explains why the landings have been affected as they lost support on one side. However, this movement does provide the space needed to install new steel supports, and the stones can be carefully returned to their original position.

The contractors, Daedalus Conservation, then created full‑size plywood templates of the new steel components. These allowed us to test the fit precisely before they are manufactured offsite.

Mar 2026

Mar 2026

March was a busy month for the Saving the Staircases project, although much of the work was taking place away from Montacute House itself.

Early in the month, the Project Manager visited the Brockhampton Estate in Herefordshire, where the oak for the new step and landing protections is being sourced. This oak was felled three years ago as part of Brockhampton’s countryside management programme and has been air-drying outdoors in rough-cut form ever since. While three years may sound sufficient, the timber still retained a high moisture content. Using it at this stage could have caused movement or twisting over time. To prevent this, the large timbers were cut down further and then slow-dried in a kiln, ensuring the wood will remain stable once installed as protective covers.

March also saw progress on the steelwork needed to support certain steps and landings. Steel beams were fabricated at a specialist manufacturing facility near Stockbridge. Using the wooden templates, the beams were produced in sections and then welded together – rather like a heavy-duty version of flat-pack furniture. The finished beams were galvanised to protect them from corrosion and will be painted once they have been installed on site.

Apr 2026

Apr 2026

Work on the Saving the Staircases project continued steadily throughout April. The manufacturing of the new steel beams for the South Staircases carried on off site, while back at the house, specialists from Daedalus were focused on repairing areas of the historic plasterwork.

Installing the new supports

Midway through the month marked an important milestone, as the steel beams were delivered and installation began. This stage has helped us better understand how the building was originally constructed — and, as is often the case with historic houses, it brought a few surprises.

While some walls, particularly the central ashlar (finely cut stone) columns, are made from solid stone, other areas are not as uniform as they appear. As drilling began, the team discovered that parts of the walls contain far more loose rubble between stone layers than expected.

To protect the fragile plasterwork and avoid vibrations that could damage these less solid areas, the team switched to core drilling, a more controlled method. Although this process removes slightly more material than standard drilling, our design team quickly developed a solution that allows the fixings to work effectively while minimising impact on the historic fabric. This approach takes a little more time, but ensures the building is treated with the care it needs.

Creating bespoke step coverings

At the same time, the South West Specialist Craft team has been hard at work preparing protective coverings for the staircases. In total, this involves 104 steps and 22 landings across the two staircases.

Each step requires a completely bespoke solution. The process begins with crafting a set of wedges for every tread — typically five per step — to ensure the surface is level and safe to walk on. Every wedge is individually shaped, carefully measured and numbered so it fits exactly in the right place.

This detailed process is also helping us better understand the wear on the staircases. Variations in wedge depth reveal where centuries of footfall have had the greatest impact — something that isn’t always visible to the eye alone.

Before moving to the next stage, each wedge is tested for stability to ensure it won’t rock or shift. A layer of cork is then added before the timber covering is attached, providing a protective cushion between the oak and the historic stone beneath.