The maintenance team at Hever Castle: find out more

January 15 2019 | Castle Garden

Dan Webb heads up the maintenance team at Hever Castle.

The father of two, who has worked on the estate for 16 years, trained at Hadlow College and worked as a farm manager before joining the maintenance team.

Dan chose the career change to join the maintenance team as he wanted to spend more time with this family and his previous job meant he was rarely at home.

The maintenance team undertake a variety of different jobs in the Castle, grounds and at the golf club with everything from building works, electrical work to sewerage, plumbing and grounds works.

During the Castle triathlon, which Dan has also taken part in, the maintenance team help out with set up including lighting and power and mowing on the estate.

Other maintenance jobs include looking after the fish in the moat, managing contractors and logging for the estate, especially at Christmas when huge amounts of timber are used.

The maintenance team are also heavily involved in event set up, particularly for Christmas: “Christmas is a massive undertaking in terms of all the extra work we have to do,” says Dan.

Dan’s maintenance role also sees him responsible for the management of the woodland on the estate. This year this area will be opened up to the public for the first time in order for visitors to see rare daffodils and bluebells.

As head of the maintenance team Dan is also responsible for the management of the biomass boiler including purchasing timber, chipping and running the plant. The biomass boiler, which is powered by wood chips is part of Hever Castle’s environmental efforts. The attraction is silver rated for green tourism.

In January and February the maintenance team are able to get all the jobs done that cannot be done throughout the year from small repairs and redecorating to managing bigger projects like work on the Loggia in the Italian Garden.

Dan enjoys the variety of the role and working with staff. He always has a story to tell including the time he had to rescue a lamb from the river.