Fullers' Earth

We visited Mapperton (Extra) today for the Christmas Fair, and a pretty decent little fair it was, despite the wind and the (later) rain.  I had not anticipated spending money there (silly me) but when I returned to the car park to decant some purchases, I spotted this gentleman in his shed.  I asked to take his photo, and he agreed.

He was making up a screen to enclose and cover the Aga cooking range because some fairly drastic rectification was necessary: fuel oil had leaked while the range was switched off over the summer, filling the space under the range and the contaminating the insulation of the (old) Aga.  This insulation turned out to be Fullers' Earth and it would have to be removed from the Aga before it could be switched on again because of the risk of fire.  Now a plumber would be brought in to remove the contaminated stuff, but the screen was needed to prevent any of the dust escaping to cause damage in the house.

So I had to tell him about the use that Fullers' Earth was put to in the military – decontamination of surfaces after attack with chemical agent.  FE would have been used to absorb the liquid, if we had ever had such an attack.

It was a very entertaining chat.  I took a few other photos around the estate, as last year, and they're at my Flickr page.