ABSTRACT
This chapter is designed to provide basic advice to owners of historic staircases who are not fortunate enough to have conservators to hand, by illustrating the range of materials found in staircases and offering advice for the proper care and maintenance of historic fabric. It can only act as a brief outline, and further reading is strongly recommended. By far the most useful aid will be the National Trust’s Manual of Housekeeping, a compendious and meticulously considered work, which now runs to 1,000 pages in the latest edition. 1
