Case Study – An Extensive Royal Country Estate in Kent
An overview
This extensive country estate, Fairlawne, is owned by the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia, known as the "House of Al Saud", and has a stunning history with our own Royal Family, and specifically the Queen Mother. You can read more about that at the bottom of this page.
The estate consists of a stunningly beautiful Grade I listed stately home that sits grandly within immaculately manicured gardens.
The main house was once in use all the time, and was a favourite bolt-hole to the family, but over the past 15 years, it has increasingly been used less frequently.
A few years before I bought Hydroworks, the estate replaced their two water softeners, and two more modern like-for-like systems were installed.
Unfortunately for the estate, a flawed but all too common practice in our sector is to base replacement softeners on what was there previously, but the problem with that way of thinking is that water usage can change over time, either going up or going down. If that happens, then the new softener/s installed may be not be suitable, or effective and could turn out to be a costly misstep.
And that is, unfortunately, what happened here.
The original equipment on site
The main house had 2 x 9100 Duplex 75L water softeners installed in the basement, which went on to serve a cold water storage tank that was the size of a small swimming pool, and the water inlet to these tanks was controlled by three oversized traditional ball valves.
When I took on Hydroworks, I visited the estate and noted that the current softeners were giving hard water. The right course of action at the time was to service the softeners to ensure that they were in working order.
Over the months that followed, I popped back in frequently to check the performance of the softeners, and each time I noted almost completely hard water. As I was personally new to the estate, I did not want to rush in with any recommendations that might be misconstrued as bad advice based on profit hunting.
The advice I gave the client was based on extensive experience within our sector
Once I felt that I had correct understanding and the best plan of action, I approached the Estate Manager, and explained that I was concerned that the softeners were significantly oversized for the water usage of the main house.
I said that I felt the best course of action was to replace the softeners for something smaller and more efficient, but that I had also noted a considerable degree of 'trickle flow' through the softeners.
(Trickle Flow is where the water used in the home is so slow that it goes through the softener resin bed so gradually that a channel forms in the resin bed (we call this 'chanelling'). That channel fills with chalk, and initially, the softener gives softened water, but over time the water gets harder and harder because with such low flow rates, the water cannot efficiently use the whole of the resin bed. When the water comes out of the softener, then the flow is so slow ('Trickle Flow') that often the meters struggle to measure the passing water.)
My advice was to start off by replacing the three traditional ball valves with low-flow Keraflow valves, and at the same time take one of the softeners offline. The Keraflow valves are excellent because they let the water level in the tanks drop quite a lot before they open, at which point the water gushes in to the tanks at a higher flow rate. I also felt that the water levels in the tank needed to be reduced as good water management requires stored water to not sit and risk becoming stagnant or a breeding ground for bacteria.
I also suggested that this would be an excellent time, prior to these valves being replaced, for the tanks to be cleaned, which he said he could arrange.
I was asked me what likelihood there was that this would solve the problem, and I said I thought it would improve the water quality to the main house, but not make much difference to the water softness - this was because I felt that just one of the large duplex softeners were still very much oversized for the water used / stored.
We sat in silence as Ian pondered my recommendations, and then he asked me to go ahead with the plan. The Estate Manager felt, however, that replacing the softeners would be a shame as they had cost a lot of money, and so I suggested that what I would do was to strip one or both down and 'put them to sleep', so that when the estate got used more in the future, they could be reassembled and put back into service, one at a time. This was a much preferred option, and I was given the green light to proceed as I felt was necessary, and to keep him in the loop.
The planned upgrades began
Replacing the 3 x ball valves of the tank to Delayed Action Float Valves
We began by ordering up the replacement Keraflow valves, and while we waited for them to arrive, the estate drained the tanks, cleaned them out and filled them with just enough water to cover the outlets of the tank - I didn't want the water levels too high and wanted to control it by the new valves I would install.
We replaced the ball valves, and took the water height within the tank from nearly 1m in height to just 45cm - Now when the softener tops up it really comes through at a more suitable flow rate too. As the estate gets busier in the future, they can raise the level of the water quite easily.
On the same day, I stripped down one of the softeners and cleaned out the salt cabinet. This softener was then 'put to sleep' and is there for any future requirement.
By taking the one softener off-line, we were able to reduce their salt and water running costs by 12.5 kg per regeneration and over 325 L of water saved.
This left only one of the duplexes in operation. I left it without any override settings to just see if the changes we had made had in fact made any improvement. Over the next three months, I returned several times and tested the water on each visit, but unfortunately, the water was always completely hard. As the weeks went on, I gradually implemented a day-override setting to make the softener regenerate more frequently, but when I was down to four days, I felt the time had come to proceed with the next step of the plan.
I went back to see the Estate Manager and updated him. I explained to him that while I could continue to implement reduced overrides to make the machine regenerate maybe even every other day, I felt the cost of that solution in terms of salt cost and water wastage far outweighed the recommendation to replace the softener with a new machine.
The Estate was in complete agreement and thanked me for taking so much time to go through the process to prove that my recommendations had played out throughout the process. The Estate Manager explained that this gave him peace of mind that he had made a fully considered and accurate decision based on the facts.
The new Minimax Big Blue water softener was installed
We started off by stripping down the remaining softener and placing that also 'to sleep', awaiting a time in the future when the estate is more in use again.
We then installed the new softener just in front of the other two. Interestingly, I noted that they had just had a full pallet of salt delivered. They were going through a pallet of salt a month (a cost of over £500 a month) with their current softeners, and so I was very much looking forward to reminding the Estate that they should cancel the routine delivery as I felt he was in for a bit of a surprise as to how much money they would save.
Two weeks after the softener was installed, I went back to test the water in the tank. We had dropped from 18 drops (308ppm) to 4 drops (69ppm) of hardness. Robert was delighted. He said that the staff in the house were overwhelmed by the difference. This was great news but I told him that I promised that we would get it down to completely soft water which is 0 - 17ppm, but I think he was sceptical.
The team on the Estate were initially confused, however, how the softener was doing so well as they were not using any salt. This was the magic of the new softener - massively powerful, crazy flow rates, completely soft water guaranteed, and best of all, very affordable to run. (Incidentally, one year later and they are still using salt from the pallet of salt delivered over a year ago - their savings have been colossal!)
The savings mount up
THE ORIGINAL SOFTENERS
There were 2 x 75L duplex 9100 softeners installed, and they were both working together, in parallel.
The estate was going through 49 bags of 25kg salt every month, costing them in excess of £500 a month. Both softeners needed to be serviced annually. Rough annual salt costs were £6,000.
The water used in the regeneration process is not costed as it is drawn from their own estate, so can be perceived to be 'free water', however, they would have used approx 60,000L of water a year.
PER SOFTENER, PER REGENERATION:
12.5kg - of salt used per regeneration
325L - of Water used pre regeneration
THE NEW MINIMAX BIG BLUE WATER SOFTENER
The result of updating to the new softener is we now use just 75 L of water per regeneration and just 900g of salt, which is a significant financial saving to the estate which will save several thousands of pounds a year.
Best of all, the water is now completely soft.
A British Royal Connection
JUBILEE MEMORIES OF ROYAL CONNECTIONS WITH FAIRLAWNE AND SHIPBOURNE By Sir Edward Cazalet
"In this Diamond Jubilee year of Queen Elizabeth II, our beloved Sovereign, I have been asked to write something about the Royal Family’s connections with Fairlawne and Shipbourne over the years.
It was back in 1871 that my grandfather, Edward, my namesake, bought Fairlawne and its estate. He was what was known as a “merchant squire”, that is to say someone who has left home to seek his fortune overseas and who, having been successful, has returned to his home country to buy a large house and estate for his retirement. In the 1870s, Edward had also bought a fine holiday villa in the South of France at Cimiez behind Nice, known as the Villa Liserb. This he did despite the fact that nearly two centuries previously his ancestors had fled from France to avoid persecution as committed Protestants.
It so happened that after William, his son, had inherited the estate and the Villa Liserb on Edward’s death, Queen Victoria used to come to stay at the villa adjoining the Cazalet’s villa. On these royal visits to the South of France for her summer holidays Queen Victoria loved to drive single handedly a small cart drawn by a donkey round the garden, even though driving space in the garden of the villa where she stayed was limited. The Cazalets, naturally, arranged for the Queen to be able to drive her cart in the larger garden of their villa.
As a result Queen Victoria and Mollie, William’s wife, soon became good friends and, consequent on this, Queen Victoria generously consented to becoming my Uncle Victor’s godmother at his christening on 27th December 1896. One of the family’s treasured possessions is a photograph, taken shortly before the Queen’s death, of her driving her donkey cart round the Villa Liserb garden, with the future Queen Ena of Spain, then a small girl, sitting in the cart with her.
Then, many years later, when both were at the school age of 13, my Aunt Thelma, my father’s elder sister who was brought up at Fairlawne, became a firm friend of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, our future Queen Mother. This was to be a lifelong friendship and there is a lovely picture of the two of them, taken in 1912, sitting on a balustrade at Fairlawne. On the numerous visits which Lady Elizabeth as a young girl paid to Fairlawne, she regularly attended St Giles Church. This was, of course, before the First World War. After Aunt Thelma’s eldest brother, Edward, had been killed in the First World War (his small wooden cross, which was on his grave near the Somme where he was killed, can be seen to the left of the pulpit) and her second eldest brother, Victor had been killed in the Second World War, my father Peter Cazalet, the youngest of the Cazalet children, having survived the war, had already become well installed at Fairlawne.
There then came the big moment in 1949. By this time my father, assisted by his great friend Anthony Mildmay, had established, post war, an extremely successful steeplechasing stable at Fairlawne. In that very year the decision was taken that Princess Elizabeth, as our Sovereign then was, and her mother, then Queen Elizabeth, should share the ownership of a steeplechaser. My father, Peter, then had the honour of being asked to find and train a suitable steeplechaser for this august partnership. Of course, he leapt at it, and, as a result, the King, Queen and Princess Elizabeth, as she then was, visited Fairlawne to confirm the arrangement.
Following the death of King George VI in 1952, the present Queen, at a later stage, took on ownership of the National Stud flat-race horses. The Queen Mother then took over ownership of the steeplechasers. As a result, and for more than 20 years thereafter, my father trained the Queen Mother’s steeplechasers at Fairlawne and won no less than 250 races for her as an owner. In a highly competitive field this was no mean achievement and my father, who over that period was champion trainer on three occasions, had a particularly successful season in 1964/65 when the Queen Mother won more races, 27 in all, with her horses, than any other owner.
Some of the old timers who read this will surely well remember the tragic incident of the fall of Devon Loch in the 1956 Grand National. The horse slipped up on the flat just 50 yards from the winning post, a long way in front of the then second horse. No good reason was ever found to explain why this should have happened and it proved to be an historic and tragic event in racing. Dick Francis, the jockey, always put it down to the fact that never before in his life had he heard such a roar from any crowd as he and Devon Loch were given as they came up the final straight. He felt that this may have frightened the horse. As a result of this fall, sadness and much disappointment enveloped the village, through Fairlawne having so narrowly failed to provide the Queen Mother with her one overall sporting wish, namely that she should be the proud owner of the winner of the Grand National.
Through her involvement with the horses there, Fairlawne and Shipbourne meant a great deal to the Queen Mother. She got to know well all the lads who looked after the horses, in particular John Hole and Alec King who had the main responsibility for them. When she met these two as she went round her horses in the stable she would, without any prompting, ask them of particular events in their lives which she had learnt about on previous visits – I can honestly say they were absolutely devoted to her. The Head Lad for 29 years was Jim Fairgrieve, who was a delightful Scotsman. The Queen Mother earned his greatest respect both as a Scots lady with her knowledge of horses and, in particular, her keen and sincere interest in people.
Lord Oaksey was one of the most distinguished participants in steeplechasing over the decades of the post-war racing years. In his history of steeplechasing, he wrote that the Queen Mother was one of the three top people who, in those postwar years, had played a major part in lifting the sport of National Hunt racing to its high level of popularity and genuine sportsmanship. Her happy presence on a racecourse always gave great pleasure – as the word sped round the course “The Queen Mum’s here today”. Dick Francis said that whenever he rode a winner for her he found it hard to believe that such an incredible roar could come from the crowd. It was John Oaksey who wrote that if she eventually did own a horse that won the Grand National anybody within half a mile of the race course would be well advised to put in earplugs! Perhaps that says more than anything else that I can say.
All with long memories at Shipbourne will remember that she stayed many weekends at Fairlawne and there must be so many who have lived in Shipbourne, not only those old stables lads, but others as well, who will recall her lovely welcoming smile, her sense of fun and the invariable interest which she took in all those she met. She was a particular admirer of our Rector, the late Archdeacon Edward Maples Earl. He was a great speaker but, when she came, his oratory from the pulpit would soar to dizzy heights and she always looked forward to her regular visits to Sunday matins. Quite a number of her weekends at Fairlawne involved her horses running at the nearby course at Lingfield and it was these weekends which the Archdeacon used to call “The Feast of St Lingfield”.
On any weekend visit she made she would be on the gallops early on a Saturday morning. The horses would be out at 7.00am, sometimes during a bitterly cold dawn. She would be well wrapped and wearing her thick boots. As Jim Fairgrieve, the old Scotsman, used to say, “Her Majesty is trained for all this through her Scots blood”. On one famous occasion my father had organised a jumping session on the schooling ground in the park. There were a number of “names” staying in the house on that occasion which included Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Elizabeth Taylor, a highly accomplished rider (remember that film National Velvet), was riding my brilliant pony of 14 ½ hands, and she was going to jump the pony over the hurdles. Just as she was about to start there was a thundering voice that came from two or three hundred yards away on the higher ground towards the main house. The voice was calling urgently. Just before Elizabeth was due to go over the jumps, a figure suddenly drew closer, leaving the gate from the Fairlawne garden and advancing towards us across the park. When about 100 yards away this figure was suddenly heard to start shouting again. There was a lull for us all to hear what was being shouted and then, declaimed at full volume, there came from this approaching individual, who turned out to be Richard Burton, the immortal Shakespearean words, “A horse! a horse! my Kingdom for a horse!”. The Queen Mother was delighted and highly amused by this highly improbable and dramatic piece of theatre on the Fairlawne schooling ground!
It was a family joke that my father, who always had an early morning start before a long day’s racing, was the only person who was allowed to fall asleep in her car when driving home with the Queen Mother after a day on the racecourse.
My brother Anthony, an expert on vintage cars, once had such a car at Fairlawne when the Queen Mother was staying. Egged on by the Queen Mother, he took her along some of the Fairlawne drives in this aged vehicle. This caused my father a great deal of anxiety. However the Queen Mother enjoyed it to the full and Anthony was always well in control.
During Fairlawne weekends there was always a regular game of croquet in which she was partnered by my father, who was an absolutely top-class player. They were a very hard pair to beat. It was the greatest fun playing in any foursome with her. In 1968 there was a big family occasion when my sister Sheran was married to Simon Hornby at Shipbourne Church. Most of the village kindly turned out to see them driving away and the Queen Mother was, of course, the central figure in this. Also present were Noel Coward and, once again, Elizabeth Taylor and her husband, Richard Burton. These three, who had deliberately left London by car together in good time, had arrived much too early and so took the opportunity, well before the service started, to drop into The Chaser for a sharpner or two. In fact they were the first to enter the pub that morning, and old Reg Bearsby, then in control of the taps, nearly died of shock when he first saw this wholly unexpected trio entering his public bar.
After my father’s sad death in 1973, with the stables still in cracking form, the Queen Mother in her well-established sweet and understanding way, came down to Fairlawne for a final visit. She individually saw each member of the staff in a private room, giving them all a personal gift ranging from cigarette boxes to travelling clocks to cufflinks, all engraved with her crest and initials. This was a typically generous gesture on her behalf and one which I know brought tears to the eyes of all those concerned.
As the era of the Fairlawne racing stables concluded, the royal connection with Shipbourne and Fairlawne also came to an end. Its memories have, I think, been treasured by so many with whom the Queen Mother made contact. She brought her happy, welcoming, and delightful presence both to all those who worked in the house and the stables, and to the church and the world of Shipbourne and Fairlawne. So may I conclude by saying that it has indeed been a privilege for me to be able to paint some of the diverse scenes which have flowed for so many of us from this glorious royal connection."