Draining & Cleaning our HUGE 18th CENTURY SWIMMING POOL | Ep 6

welcome to mapperton our family home and estate endorse it in the southwest of england julie and i took over running mapperton a few years ago from my parents the earl encounters of sandwich it's a lot of work but also a lot of fun this place is full of fascinating stories extraordinary people and endless repairs so please join our family on this journey of a lifetime as we put all our efforts into preserving this magnificent part of england's heritage [Music] so i literally just posted on my stories up above i'm like yeah and i'm going to be swimming in the pool tomorrow and then steven was like i don't think you are i think it's empty i have i've been at mapperton for almost 20 years i have never seen the pool empty and so clearly i'm not swimming so steve i'm going to come down and you're going to tell me what is happening because i have no idea right so do i just do i can come on in i'm used to okay so i go backwards right it's like yeah okay all right so i'm down at the bottom this has literally made my whole 20 years of being at mapperton right now i'm so excited okay so steve many of you guys know is our head gardener and you're also going to get to know him a lot more because he will be doing a lot of the garden tours with my mother-in-law he is the real expert here as far as uh mapperton the gardens go and by the way his instagram is outstanding so do check out his instagram um but steve tell me what is happening well every year in theory uh we empty this and clean it but of course the last year didn't get done right uh because obviously the pandemic and things like that so it's where we've had two years worth of mud in here and i've been swimming in that mud you're happy it's filling in the mud yes well also you know it's full of it's part of nukes it's full of frogs i swim with them yeah yeah there's actually heading towards uh heading towards us now oh there is yes which is fun okay we'll get that on camera so everybody can see what i swim with right so yeah so every year we dry we train it we get rid of all the mud we pressure wash the sides and it stays clean for a week or so right then it starts to fill up with wildlife and mud again and mud again oh my goodness okay so i have a i have a couple questions here number one how long did it take it to drain well i had a i had a grand plan for this because we're closed on a friday and so i wanted to clean this out on a friday and of course today it's thursday yup so i pulled out the plug yesterday afternoon because i thought it would take quite a long time long time to drain it didn't uh it drained in about three hours wow well where's the plug what plug oh there's a plug at the other end can we go see that oh my goodness so you literally pull the plug yeah yeah so uh and where does the water go well i mean interestingly it goes it actually goes under the other pool and out into the stream beyond under the other so the reflect what do we call that other pool so i get it technically right the lilly pool yes it goes under there and then it goes into the stream yes i see oh my goodness oh my goodness i said literally okay uh the slug at the top is the first one we pull this one right um and that's attached to a really long uh pole yeah uh and so we fish out the pole turn the sort of tap pull it out and uh and it drains through there yeah so this is what i was taught i mean sometimes when the water levels would get really low i would be able to touch the bottom but you can see it's quite a deep pool it is a deep pool yeah okay so can you remind everybody who because it was victor who built this no no was it was it ethel well we no no it wasn't we uh we know that the polls were here prior to 1860. oh okay i'm so don't even listen to me don't even listen to me so the pools were here prior to 1860. so the only historic map we have uh is from 1860 other guns and the pools were there then and of course were there a thing i think uh that probably the 20s restored the pools and probably uh for formalizing a bit right okay and she was the one who added the the topri as well right so you guys will be getting a lot more about the obviously the mapperton gardens um and and the history behind it but it really was mrs labouche who designed if you like is that right the italian at gardens absolutely right yeah yeah yeah okay so i'm still learning and then so these pools were prior to that interesting and uh and also uh in the 18th century the 60s map there was an orchard on the bank over on that side and then vegetable plots on this side now which is really strange because obviously uh there was a garden up in the for the the formal garden prior to mrs lavisher uh there was a rose garden at some point but there were other things before okay so you would have looked down from there into basically a productive space right with formal pools which is quite odd it i agree it is quite odd i mean it's much better as it is right now thanks to steve and um and his team and all the hard work you do okay so next step next step is my next question is so what happens next because we've got mud here and everything less mud than we had actually the small the this morning we had about four inches of mud through the whole thing right so so what have you been doing like screw it sort of scoop the mud down to this end and the water kind of carries it away and what is this thing that they use uh to scrape out cow okay you've got nets here you've got everything set up yeah yeah yeah i've got just about everything to to do this oh my goodness okay so this is gonna once this all goes away then what's the next step so the next step is i'll pressure wash all the sides and get rid of all this algae and muck right oh that's great the base as well so then it will be very clean very clean for a while and then all of a sudden more like frogs and toads and newts will come back there's actually a lot of mutes hiding in that pond weed over there and i'm leaving them them in there until i'm ready to lose them because i don't want them to get hot okay oh that's very kind of you nestor nasty would appreciate that okay last question last question as we walk back so exciting is how long will it take to fill up and how do you fill it up well that's a very good question because um it fills in from a spring and and it's been very dry here for a couple of weeks right so our flow into here is quite slow right so it might take quite some time okay but certainly days is it that thing that feels like that's it i'm afraid okay so that's gonna take like a week maybe yeah right interesting see so it's it's a lot it's a lot slower to fill than it than it was to drain oh well yeah this is fascinating how is it steve that i have been here and i'm asking this is like a rhetorical question because steve will not be able to answer this nor will i but isn't it i've been here for almost 20 years i didn't even know this happened i've never seen i mean granted i've only started swimming in this yeah yeah yeah you know since the pandemic right prior to just the poor before the pandemic this by the way as many of you know like going to swim in this pool throughout the pandemic is something that has definitely helped keep me sane um and energized throughout so i have this real attachment to this pool so i think it's i think i'm answering my own question the reason i didn't know about this is because i wasn't involved i had no attachment to this pool but now i do um so thank you you're welcome next year steve can i next year what i want to do now that i know this happens yeah i want to pull the plug and i want to help you clean it so i really do want to next year i'm not going to be in this dress no or these shoes and i'm going to pull the plug and i'm going to clean this with you yeah it sounds good yeah excellent yeah you have i mean listen i'm a a word a girl of uh good on her word so um oh my gosh thank you this is literally everybody made my week okay we are here and it's been transformed since i was here yesterday with steve so as you guys know steve has given you all of the historical information which was very new to me and i'm with landa here today and you are power washing is that right pressure washing pressure pressure washing pressure washing okay so i can already see you're almost done is that right you've taken off all of the algae i i would you say algae i actually do say algae but i figured if i'm in a presence of an english man i better say algae the right way so what have you been you've been power washing all along is that right uh-huh and it looks great it's a little cleaner it's a lot it's a lot cleaner yeah and how long has this taken you so far um about five hours so far five hours and i can see kind of what you've got left it looks like you've got less than much less than a quarter left is that right yeah say in the end and okay so my question to you is well we were having this discussion beforehand we've realized this is much longer than an olympic-sized pool right [Laughter] we've agreed on that much longer than an olympic-sized pool do we know how much longer it's about so i to me being the american even when i hear meters i'm like i can't quite compute that yet but i think that's got to be there's like three feet to a meter so like three foot three so it's definitely over 120 feet it's probably 130 feet steven's saying 130 feet anyway it's big all right so what i want to ask is can i not power wash can i pressure wash can i have a little go okay is it scary is it going to get me wet it might it might okay okay and can i borrow your is that okay all right okay so you're gonna show me how to do it lando because i'm clueless okay what's this thing doing that's the reservoir oh that's from the oh yeah yeah yeah okay okay so so if do i just point and fire am i pointing in front come at an angle come on it'll come straight back at you oh oh okay so if i don't go at an angle okay so do you want to show me quickly do you want to put your ear guards on first i think you can go quickly okay okay you'll do it quick okay okay land is going to show me how to do this okay okay okay no no it's all tied up okay okay good getting all the stuff oh my god okay this is like a lot of work oh my god okay all right i'm gonna head back there we go [Applause] okay okay that was like literally how long did i do that for three minutes and i'm exhausted okay i am exhausted and that was three minutes you've been out here for five hours and a cup of tea and a cupboard and a cup of tea okay i need a cup of tea after three minutes um this is that is that's a lot of work wow well okay so okay well i hope you're what are you gonna have after you finish are you gonna have like a beer okay yeah because you can't just have a cup of tea after you finish this you need to have yeah do you think you're gonna have i mean you could bring your beer in the middle of the pool steve could come down i could come and we could all cheers this should we do that what time what time do we think this is going to mm-hmm i don't know what do you think four o'clock yeah great yeah yeah yeah okay i finished teaching yoga at three so should i bring down some drinks at like four yeah that's okay it's friday you're allowed right okay so should i what do you guys want do you want do you want champ do you want the montague cuvee yeah should we whip open a little bit of bottle and have a little or do you want beers beer okay we'll do beer or cider yeah you soda yeah okay i was thinking you might be working man's drink the working master exciter for you steve beer and i'll do a beer too okay so we're gonna celebrate this because this is wow quite the feat absolutely all right thanks linda i'll give these back to you um and we'll be back at four o'clock [Music] um all right this is it this is the fi i mean can you believe it i'm in the bottom of the pool all right steve and landa are here huge congratulations um we are toasting to the both of you and to basically to this wonderful extraordinary pool that you have cleaned up not only because it needed to be cleaned but to help i don't know because i swim in here to make my swims a little bit cleaner thank you um okay so take your pick lander there's a cider for you thank you and then steve i brought yeah true i yeah i wanted to get i brought the italian beer for me because i brought a couple just in case you wanted one because you know my love of italy but i did get you some english ones so there you go okay so i'm gonna stick this here that's okay because this can be wet because it's waterproof and i've got bottle opener okay landa here we go yeah of course there we are i didn't bring cups because i don't even use a cup when i drink beer we don't need yeah we don't eat cups right thank you so we're gonna do a toast i'm gonna do my italian here we go okay toasting to this pool and toasting to both of you cheers cheers amazing oh my gosh bottoms up so we're going to continue to enjoy our beers in the sun in the bottom of the pool here at mapperton [Music] all right this is it everybody it's been one week since we started filling up the pool from that little uh trickle down there and i can't wait any longer it's not up to the level that it needs to get up to but you know i'm a week out of practice of my cold water immersion therapy and i must get in and plus the pool is clear this is the first time i think i've ever been able to see the bottom of the pool and i'm now going to be able to stand in it and touch it and it won't be as muddy slimy as it was in the past so here we go two minutes of my dip this will be freezing cold water and i'll just point out these new steps that i made sure that my husband put in he tried to do cold water immersion therapy with me and it was too cold for him and he jumped out and broke the steps so i told him when we uh were putting the water in and it was drained i said i want all new steps all around and he's done that for me so thank you to my husband here i go oh it's called whoa okay so touching the bottom i mean this isn't as dramatic as it usually is a i'm used to it but b it's i gotta get it you have to the thing about cold water immersion like therapy is that you have to get it like above your shoulders or it's just like not gonna work so i'm gonna get it it's like so much easier when i can just like dunk in but i'm not going to run out like my husband did break another step so i'm going to get in in five four and here we go everybody i'm gonna go below the shoulders and swim this is a bit you gotta breathe because when it goes even though i can touch the bottom i gotta get it below my shoulders or over my shoulders i should say and it's cold it's bringing back all those memories of going in here nearly daily over three lockdowns and um but i'll tell you what now i'm getting used to it i'll tell you what the bottom feels amazing i mean it's like not slimy i was basically over lockdown swimming in two years because it was two years as you all know until we cleaned this pool because we didn't do it over lockdown so think of all that was the lovely algae and mud that was built up so now all of a sudden my body's getting used to it and it what happens is when you stay in here for those two minutes weirdly because your body's reacting to the freezing cold but not weirdly but extraordinarily because your body's so clever is that it it almost feels like there's a hot ring around you so it turns into this hot like i feel like i'm almost like on fire right now so i feel like i'm not quite but almost on fire and then it makes it much easier so you can see my breathing and you definitely have to breathe has become much more easy so what do we think do we think it's been two minutes two minutes i think it's been two minutes and that's it it's almost like you don't have to once you once you start to feel like okay this feels okay you know that it's done its trick but i will say it's so nice to touch the bottom and know that it's clean [Music] those are my two minutes nice coming up on new steps that aren't cracked and broken and now i feel energized alive awake and all of those wonderful feelings that cold water immersion therapy gives to you but now it's time for a hot bath you

Channel: Mapperton Live: This (un)Aristocratic Manor Life

Views: 1,612,930

Keywords: chateau diaries, how to renovate a chateau, pool cleaning, pond cleaning, swimming pool cleaning, the pool guy, thepoolguy, thep00lguy, thep00lguy ML

Id: eNQlQ6d_Wsc

Length: 20min 15sec (1215 seconds)

Published: Sun May 09 2021