Assembly Rooms chandeliers cleaned

BBC Points West's Lizzie Way on the big clean

Five huge chandeliers, which have hung in Bath's Assembly Rooms since the venue opened in 1771, are undergoing their bi-annual clean.

During the two week restoration they will be dismantled and relamped, and supporting cables and wiring will also be replaced.

They are worth £500,000 each and were originally made of Whitefriars crystal.

They are now considered to be one of the finest sets of 18th century chandeliers in the world.

During World War II, the chandeliers were moved into safe storage - the building was destroyed by fire during the Blitz of Bath in 1942 and the chandeliers were only returned after the building was restored in 1963.

Ian Johnston from Bath and North East Somerset Council remembers the famous chandelier-smashing scene from Only Fools and Horses when he is asked if he is nervous about the cleaning process.

"We're always nervous about something going wrong," he said.

"But we've done this for a number of years now and I think we've got the procedure down to a fine art."

The men in charge of the delicate task are Terry Brotheridge and Paul Jones - thankfully not Del Boy and Rodney.

"I used to get a bit nervous here because they're quite valuable," said Terry.

"We used to close the doors at first so people weren't watching but after a while we decided to throw the doors open, and people come in and watch the cleaning going on."

The Assembly Rooms were a favourite meeting place for Jane Austen who often danced there and placed key scenes in two of her novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, in the Assembly Rooms.

"Originally when they were candle they didn't give a great deal of light - it's thought about five Watts per candle," added Terry.

"It's one of the reasons why the ladies used to wear very light make-up, so that their faces would shine and be seen.

"If you had a suntan in those days, you wouldn't be seen at all!"