3 Goodgymers returned to the beautiful Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick this evening to help with their exciting restoration project.

The Lord Leycester has been awarded support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to carry out the largest major restoration works on the building in nearly 100 years.

Before the builders move in, numerous items of furniture and artifacts need to be safely tucked away out of harm's way.

Our first task of the evening was moving 20 reasonably light, but rather awkward, square tables from the beautiful Great Hall, down a ramp (whilst at the same time watching our heads on the low doorways), up an external stone staircase and then maneuvering between the narrow buttress corridor, into the Chapel of St James and through the last obstacle, the narrow iron gateway. It was then a case of shuffling around some of the furniture that was already in the chapel to make room to stack the tables up near the altar.

Next was the long settle (a long wooden bench with arms and a high back) which Nigel and James managed to carry along the same obstacle course whilst Katherine watched on, adding useful commentary and with the very important job of carrying the cushions!

Having warmed up our muscles, the real challenge now seemed possible - carrying the large chest along the same route from the great hall to the chapel. Thankfully this was a bit easier to get past the buttresses so once up the staircase, we were home and dry. Or so we thought...until removing the chest revealed another collection of tables! Not wanting to leave a job unfinished, we also managed to get these up the staircase and along the same route - this time helped by the fact that the perfectly round tables rolled nicely making the job a bit easier.

With everything neatly packed away, we said goodbye and headed back to St Nicks for a quick jog around the park.

We are looking forward to helping again soon as this exciting project gets underway.