Stockwood Discovery Centre (part of the Luton Culture charitable trust) prides itself on being the custodians of the largest horse-drawn carriage collection in Europe. Known as the ‘Mossman Collection‘ several of the carriages are famed for appearing in ‘Carry On’ and ‘Hammer Horror’ films.
At some stage in their film careers several of the precious items in the collection became infested with woodworm. Further damage to the collection could have potentially cost thousands of pounds in remedial repair work to the affected carriages. Stockwood needed an effective solution to preserve and protect this irreplaceable carriage collection.
Rentokil was on hand to provide a solution that would effectively treat the woodworm infestation within the carriages, without damaging or contaminating these historic and precious items with pesticides. ProFume (unique to Rentokil in the UK) was chosen, as it tackles deep-seated insect infestations more effectively than conventional pesticide applications by eliminating all life stages of a woodboring insect infestation.
Tim Vickers, Collections Care Officer, Luton Culture commented: “We were impressed by how aware Rentokil were of the significance of this collection. They were really helpful with issues associated with undertaking a big project like this and gave us peace of mind”.
The ProFume treatment allowed all of the infested items to be treated at once. Thus minimising the downtime of the items, allowing Stockwood Discovery Centre to quickly restore the collection to its full complement for visitors. All life stages of woodworm had been eliminated, limiting any future damage and helping to preserve this historic carriage collection for future generations.
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