Tyntesfield

Tyntesfield
Tyntesfield, south side
Former names	Tyntes Place
General information
Type	Country House
Architectural style	Gothic Revival
Town or city	Wraxall, North Somerset
Country	England
Completed	1863
Cost	£70,000
Client	William Gibbs
Owner	National Trust
Dimensions
Other dimensions	106 rooms 26 main bedrooms, 43 in total including servants quarters
Technical details
Floor area	40,000 square feet (3,700 m2)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	John Norton (Main house) Henry Woodyer (Internal adjustments) Arthur Blomfield (Chapel)
Other designers	Powell; Wooldridge; Salviati; Hart, Son, Peard and Co.; Collier and Plucknett
Main contractor	William Cubitt & Co.
Designations	Grade I listed

Tyntesfield is a Victorian Gothic Revival house and estate near Wraxall, North Somerset, England, near Nailsea, seven miles from Bristol. The house is a Grade I listed building.

It is named after the Tynte baronets who had owned estates in the area since around 1500. The location was formerly that of a 16th century hunting lodge which was used as a farmhouse until the early 19th century. In the 1830s a Georgian mansion was built on the site, and this was bought by William Gibbs. In the 1860s, Gibbs had the house significantly expanded and remodelled; later, a chapel being added in the 1870s. The Gibbs family owned the house until the death, in 2001, of Richard Gibbs.

Tyntesfield was acquired by the National Trust in June 2002 after a fund raising campaign to prevent it being sold to private interests and to ensure it would be opened to the public. The house was opened to visitors for the first time just 10 weeks after the acquisition and as more rooms are restored, these too are added to the tour. The mansion was visited by 189,329 people in 2012, a fall of 8.5% on the previous year.

History

Background

The land on which the house and its estate were developed was originally part of the Tynte family estate; this family had been in the area since the 1500s, and was based between Halswell House in Goathurst near Bridgwater to the south, and Berkeley, Gloucestershire in the north.

By the late 1700s, John Tynte owned what is now the Tyntesfield estate; at that time it was approached by an avenue elm trees, planted after they were bequethed in the 1678 will of Sir Charles Harbord to the people of Wraxall in memory of two boys he had apprenticed from the village. The Tynte's had originally lived on the estate, but by the early 1800s, John had made Chelvey Court his principal residence, downgrading Tyntes Place to a farmhouse which he leased to John Vowles. In 1813, George Penrose Seymour of the adjoining Belmont estate purchased the property, and gave it to his son, the Rev. George Turner Seymour. He in turn built a new Georgian mansion on the site of the former Saddler’s Tenement, and then demolished the old farmhouse.

In 1843, the property was bought by businessman William Gibbs, who had made his fortune as a founding-partner of his family busines, Antony Gibbs & Sons. Antony Gibbs (1756–1816) from Clyst St Mary, Devon, had built his business exporting woollen cloth to Spain, where his personal network included contacts in both business, the Spanish government and the Spanish monarchy. After returning to Exeter and bankrupting himself and his father through over trading in a newly founded cloth making business, he had returned to Spain exporting cloth again, but also importing Portuguese and Spanish wine and fruit into the Port of London. Having relocated to London in 1808, he was joined in partnership by his eldest son, Henry, and second son, William, in 1813. After the death of their father in 1815, the brothers had greatly expanded the business with additional businesses in: merchant banking (they financed the Great Western Railway); shipping (they owned the SS Great Britain); and insurance. However, after the death of Henry in 1848, William greatly increased his wealth through the import and marketing of guano as a fertilizer from South America. The firm's profits from this trade were such that William Gibbs became the richest non-noble man in England.

Purchase by the Gibbs family

From the start of his partnership with his brother in the business through to his death, William Gibbs principle residence was always in London. On marrying Matilda Blanche Crawley-Boevey on 1 August 1839, William moved from his brother's house in Bedford Square to 13 Hyde Park Street. The family then moved to Gloucester Place in 1849, and then 16 Hyde Park Gardens in 1851, which the family owned until Blanche's death. However, as a wealthy man who travelled regularly to the Port of Bristol on business, he sought out a residence in the area. His sister Harriet had married hecousin George Gibbs, who lived at Belmont adjacent to the Tyntes Place estate. George Gibbs was a director of the GWR and it was through introduction via George that William purchased Tyntesfield from the widow of the Rev. George Turner Seymour, which lies only 8 miles (13 km) from the centre of Bristol, in April 1844 for £21,295.

In 1854, William Gibbs commissioned John Gregory Crace to redecorate 16 Hyde Park Gardens, and then extended the contract to Tyntes Place which he subsequently renamed Tyntesfield. In both properties principal rooms, Crace installed wood panels and gold inlays, with oil-varnished woodwork and mouldings, finished with Gothic fireplaces.

Redevelopment

View of the approach to the house from the west via the visitors centre, effectively to the rear of the property. Architect John Norton designed an irregular roof to emphasise the asymmetrical design. This picture was taken in September 2005, before the restoration of the roof and its distinct diaper-pattern

Image of Tyntesfield in an 1866 edition of The Builder magazine (the central clock tower shown was demolished in 1935)

Architectural ethos

The architectural style selected for the rebuilding was a loose Gothic combining many forms and reinventions of the medieval style. The selection of the Gothic was undoubtedly a result of Gibb's Anglo-Catholicism, which followed the view set out by the architect Augustus Pugin's 1836 book Contrasts. This work argued for the revival of the medieval Gothic style, and also "a return to the faith and the social structures of the Middle Ages". The Oxford Movement of which both Pugin and Gibbs were disciples, later this was taken a step further and claimed that the Gothic style was the only true Christian architecture; this was because classical architecture being based in Pagan temples. The completion of the mansion's chapel further accentuated the building's medieval monastical air so beloved by the Oxford Movements devotees. When completed the ecclesiastical design was re-enforced by dominating, square tower with steeply pitched roof adorned by four tourelles. This was demolished in 1935.

Design

At Tyntesfield, the original 16th-century hunting lodge turned farmhouse had been demolished and rebuilt in Georgian style 30 years before Gibbs purchased the property, and then remodelled by Robert Newton of Nailsea shortly before Gibbs purchased it. But between 1863 and 1865, with John Norton as architect and William Cubitt & Co. as sub-contracted builders, the property was substantially remodelled in a Gothic Revival style.

Norton's design enveloped the original house. He added two new wings, an extra floor and towers. Norton emphasised the restoration of architectural continuity relating to several different historical periods. As a result, while some walls remained plain others were decorated with a mixture of Gothic and naturalistic carvings.

The front (facing east over the gardens towards towards Blackwell Hill) and north (entrance courtyard) are faced in one shade of ochreous Bath Stone; while the south (rear) which is mainly allocated to the service area and servants quarters is faced in cheaper red-tinged Draycott marble rubble, and has some plastered finishes. All facades have many Gothic main windows, Tudor oriel windows, chimneys and attic dormers. Norton topped the design with an irregular roof, it's various pitches and gables emphasising the building's asymmetrical architecture. The final external addition was a huge ironwork conservatory by Hart, Son, Peard and Co. to the rear. The final external result was described by novelist Charlotte Mary Yonge, a cousin of Blanche Gibbs, as "like a church in spirit.".

The interiors were also in the Gothic style. Crace was again engaged to remodel the interiors, in some places extending or adapting his initial works, in others providing new schemes. Other notable elements of the house include glass by Powell and Wooldridge, mosaics by Salviati, and ironwork by Hart, Son, Peard and Co. George Plucknett was Cubitt's foreman, who was related to James Plunkett of Collier and Plucknett, furniture makers of Warwick. The result was that Gibbs ordered a number of specially commissioned pieces from the firm, including a fully fitted bathroom for his wife. All of these fine pieces of craftsmanship were added to by Gibb's extending collection of art works.

While the reconstruction on the house had been undertaken, William Gibbs had rented Mamhead Park in Devon. The total cost of redevelopment to create a house with 23 main bedrooms and 47 in total including servants accommodation came to £70,000 (£ as of 2024). The sum was equivalent to 18 months gross profit from all of Gibbs's business interests. After completion of the main building works, Gibbs created more cash by selling shares in Antony Gibbs & Sons to his nephew Henry Hucks Gibbs (later Lord Aldenham), which enabled him to purchase two adjoining properties – including Belmont to the east from his nephew George Lewis Monck Gibbs – to create a farming estate, founded on dairy production and forestry management. Added to further by later land purcahses, at its peak the Tyntesfield estate spanned over 6,000 acres (2,400 ha), encompassing 1,000 acres (400 ha) of forestry, from Portishead in the north to south of the valley in which the main house lay. The house and estate employed, in total, over 500 workers.

Chapel

The chapel, modelled by Arthur Blomfield on Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, as viewed from the main entrance courtyard to its south

Gibbs' final addition to Tyntesfield was added between 1872 and 1877, when he commissioned Arthur Blomfield to add a Gothic chapel to the northside of the house. Modelled on Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, it housed an organ by William Hill & Sons, and below a vault in which Gibbs intended to be buried. However, combined opposition from both the vicar of the local All Saints Church, Wraxall and the church's patron,a member of the Gorges family, led to the Bishop of Bath and Wells decreeing that he would not sanction the consecration of Tyntesfield's chapel, through fears that it would take power away from the local population fully into Gibb's hands. Despite this, the chapel formed a central part of life at Tyntesfield; twice-daily prayer meetings were held there for the family and their guests; after evening prayers the patriarch Gibbs in his chair bade each family member and guest goodnight in turn. Throughout their period of residence, the family would also open the chapel to local people on an annual basis, often during Rogation days and at Christmas. In praise of the resultant final building, Yonge hailed the chapel as the necessary culmination of the Tyntesfield project, giving "a character to the household almost resembling that of Little Gidding", the Huntingdonshire home of Nicholas Ferrar during the reign of Charles I who was much idealized by nineteenth-century Anglo-Catholics.

Life at Tyntesfield

William Gibbs: 1846–1875

William and Blanche Gibbs and family at Tyntesfield, c. 1862–3

William and Matilda had seven children and eighteen grandchildren. The family were devout Anglicans, and William and his wife were supporters of the Oxford Movement. He was a major benefactor of Keble College, Oxford, and dedicated the later part of his life to philanthropic works. Also being teetotal, he added to the estate's holding by buying the local Failand Inn, which enabled him to control any riotous behaviour (it was sold to Courage Brewery in 1962 by the second Lord Wraxall). William Gibbs died at Tyntesfield on 3 April 1875. After a service at the estate chapel on 9 April, his coffin was carried to All Saints Church, Wraxall by relays of 30 estate workers rather than in a carriage. He is buried within the family plot in the church grounds.

Antony Gibbs:1875–1907

The estate then passed to William's eldest son Antony. After graduating with a Master of Arts degree from Exeter College, Oxford, he joined the North Somerset Yeomanry where he attained the rank of Major. He married Janet Louisa Merivale on 22 June 1872, and returned Tyntesfield to manage the family estate. Antony held various positions of authority, including Justice of the Peace and later Deputy Lieutenant of Somerset. The couple had 10 children.

During the 1880s. Antony had the hallway staircase reconfigured by Henry Woodyer to let in more light from the glazed lantern roof, turning the ground floor into a more functional space. Woodyer also extended the Dining Room by taking in part of the original housekeeper's room. Crace's original wallpaper – a British imitation of Japanese paper, that itself imitated Spanish tooled leather – was lightened by a 14-year-old apprentice who hand-painted in a cream background. Antony then had the sideboard, originally commissioned from Collier and Plucknett, enlarged; they had already been extended twice was progressively enlarged New items were also ordered from Collier and Plucknett. Simultaneously , Antony has electricity and a service lift installed. This made Tyntesfield one of the first houses in the UK to have electricity. Antony spent the first night after turning on the electrical system watching the main entrance light, to ensure that it did not create a fire and was hence safe for his family.

George Abraham Gibbs, 1st Baron Wraxall: 1907–1931

The staircase at Tyntesfield

After graduating from Oxford University, George Abraham Gibbs, 1st Baron Wraxall served as a colonel in the North Somerset Yeomanry, gaining medals and four clasps in the Boer War camapign. On his return to England and marriage to the Hon. Victoria Florence de Burgh Long, daughter of Walter Hume Long, 1st Viscount Long and Lady Dorothy Blanche Boyle, the couple moved to Clyst St George in Devon. He was elected as MP for Bristol West in 1918, holding the position until his resignation in 1928. During his Parliamentary career, he held the position of Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, his father-in-law, the Rt Hon Walter Hume Long, MP (later Viscount Long of Wraxall), . George Gibbs was elevated to the peerage as Baron Wraxall in 1928, for which his appointment as Treasurer of the Household had been instrumental.

While working for his father, George commissioned further alterations to the house by architect Henry Woodyer in the 1880s. The major part of this was the replacement of the central staircase with one which wound around the outside walls, allowing more light to permeate the lower floors and hence turn the hallway into an entertainment space. Under his ownership, whilst trying to portray the Drawing Room as Renaissance Venetian, George and his wife had: Crace's stencilling all painted out and then mostly covered by damasked silk stretched on battening; the Norton fireplace removed; the furniture replaced with Edwardian pieces; and the carpet dyed by Sketchleys. In 1917, George decided to show an example to the local population and answer the call of the War Office, and so dismantled his mother's beloved ironwork conservatory and had it melted down for bullets and artillery shells.

After suffering nine miscarriages, yet bearing him three children of which only his daughter Doreen Albina de Burgh Gibbs survived him, his first wife died at Tyntesfield from influenza in 1920. In 1927 George married Ursula Mary Lawley, daughter of Lord Wenlock, and maid of honour to Queen Mary. The couple had two sons, George (known as Richard) and Eustace. Lord Wraxall died at Tyntesfield on 28 October 1931, aged 58, from pneumonia.

Ursula Gibbs: 1931–1979

The dining room at Tyntesfield

The young widow Ursula Gibbs was left with two children under two years of age, little income, and a large estate. she was noted for her efficiency and practicality. Hence in 1935, when the clock-tower needed substantial repairs to overcome dry and wet rot, she simply had it disassembled, with the metal parts stored for possible later usage and the roof realigned as if the clock tower had never existed.

During World War II, Clifton High School was relocates to the property, and 1941, the U.S. Army Medical Corps established a facility for wounded soldiers, known as the 74th General Hospital, in the estate grounds. It became the largest US Army hospital in Europe. During the period of hostilities, management of estates farming enterprises was assumed the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), leaving Lady Wraxall only the Home Farm. Lady Wraxall was allowed to keep control of Home Farm,

Bristol was heavily bombed, during one raid, the lantern roof light over the hallway was badly damaged. After the end of hostilities in 1946, Lady Wraxall applied to the Ministry of Defence for a repair grant, but was turned down. As a result damp, and latterly birds, entered the house through the roof light, until the house came into the ownership of the National Trust and was repaired.

Richard Gibbs, 2nd Baron Wraxall: 1979–2001

The drawing room at Tynetesfield

George Richard Lawley Gibbs, known as Richard, was born on 16 May 1928. At his christening, Queen Mary stood as one of his godparents. From the day her husband died, Ursula insisted that her son be called M'Lord, so that he got used to his position in society. The lightest touch he ever got in the house was when staff occasionally called him Sir.

As their father had decreed before he died, both Richard and Eustace were educated at Eton College and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, before joining the Coldstream Guards. Richard spent eight years with the Coldstream Guards, eventually rising to the rank of captain. His mother was upset at the length of time that he spent in the British Army, wanting him to come home and fulfil his family duty by returning to run the estate. After he retired from the Army, a compromise was made whereby he joined the Territorial Army, subsequently rising to the rank of major with the North Somerset and Bristol Yeomanry. He was also appointed Deputy Lieutenant for the county of Avon.

Though engaged at one time, he never married or had children. He very much enjoyed the country life of hunting, shooting and fishing, and also joined in community activities particularly with The Scout Association. He died on 19 July 2001 at the age of 73 at Tyntesfield, probably from complications arising from an asthma attack. Richard's brother Sir Eustace Gibbs, a diplomat, became the third Baron Wraxall.

National Trust purchase

Concerned with the demolition and desecration of various historic country houses since the end of the Second World War — 450 great houses were completely demolished in England between 1945 and 1955 — in the 1970s the National Trust commissioned architect Mark Girouard to catalogue and assess the remaining Victorian country houses across the United Kingdom for significance and structural integrity. He published his findings in a report, and later in the book The Victorian Country House, which in the revised second edition of 1976 included Tyntesfield as allowing access. With the Trust as a result placing Tyntesfield second on its list of priorities for preservation, Girouard said of the property:

There is no other Victorian country house which so richly represents its age as Tyntesfield.

In his later life, Richard Gibbs, 2nd Baron Wraxall recognised that the diverse interests of the large family, and the need to invest heavily in even basic refurbishment of the house to make it weather-secured and habitable, would require the family to sell Tyntesfield. Recognising also that substantial death duties would become payable on his death, Richard drew up a will based around a trust which would allow his fortune to pass to the surviving children of his brother and half sister, a total of 19 beneficiaries.

Richard died unmarried in 2001 from complications arising from an asthma attack, having reduced his usage of the substantial accommodation within Tyntesfield to just three rooms. The entire catering requirements for his regular weekend shooting parties were provided for by a microwave oven located within the butler's pantry. The trust that he had set up stated that, should the trustees agree by majority that the estate should be sold, such a sale should be completed within 12 months, and to the highest bidder. The house and estate of 1,000 acres (400 ha) of farmland, 650 acres (260 ha) of woodlands, plus 30 houses and cottages, were listed for sale by Savills in three main lots (total estimated at £15 million); with Christie's contracted to secure the sale of the house and estate contents via a separate auction (total estimated at a further £15 million).

Having not bought a county house since the 1991 purchase of Chastleton House, which took seven years to open to the public, and competing with no special status amongst the bidders, the rumoured competitors to the Trust were listed by the media to have included composer Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, and pop stars Madonna and Kylie Minogue. However, the new Director-General of the National Trust, Fiona Reynolds, launched a £35 million appeal in May 2002 via the "Save Tyntesfield" campaign, with support from designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, newsreader Jon Snow and several top architects and historians. The Trust's appeal collected £8.2 million in just 100 days, with: £3 million+ from the public; and two substantial anonymous donations of £1 million from the UK, and £4 million from the United States. The Trust also received £17.4 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund after negotiations with its chair, Liz Forgan, its largest single grant ever which caused some controversy. The National Lottery has earmarked a further £25 million for the major conservation work that is needed.

As a result of the auction, the former "Tyntesfield Estate" no longer exists as such:

• The National Trust purchased only the main central part of the Estate which comprises the house, the kitchen garden, and the park. The trust also sold off additional lands of part of the two packages from the sale that it bought. The resultant preserved house and surrounding gardens sat on a total of 150 acres (61 ha) of land are now simply known as Tyntesfield
• Charlton Farm, is now home to Children's Hospice South West, which provides palliative care to children with terminal illnesses
• Charlton House was sold into private hands, having been since 1927 the home of the Downs School

Initial conservation

After taking owership in 2002, National Trust staff secured the house and gardens, preserving them and the contents, and then catalogued the contents of the house which had been collected by the four generations of the family. Starting out with a staff of 30 volunteers, by 2013 the total of employed and volunteer staff exceeded 800 people, three times the number engaged by any other NT property.

The initial conservation work focused around weatherproofing the house, which involved:

• Repairing the roof: 20 times the size of the average British families home, it was covered by Europe's largest temporary free-standing scaffold roof structure, the size of 10 tennis courts. This allowed over 18 months repairs and restoration to take place, including the final restoration of the original bold red and black tiled geometric diaper pattern.
• Electrically rewiring the entire property with special cabling, copper sheathed (fire and rodent proofed). Undertaken by specialist contractor Haysham Ltd, the lights were chosen to model Victorian-levels of light from candles and later gas, so that additional light damage to the interiors is minimised
• Complete re-plumbing to replace much of the original lead piping
• Designing and then implementing a fireproofing scheme, mainly through the design of a suitable compartmentation system
• Exterior scaffolding: At the height of the restoration works, 28 miles (45 km) of scaffolding tubes enveloped the building's entire exterior.
• Interior scaffolding: installing scaffolding in the 43 feet (13 m) high hallway to repair the lantern rooflight, and to provide access to other high points of the interior.

These initial works cost over £10 million, much of which was raised through donations via the "Save Tyntesfield" campaign and the sale of lottery tickets to visitors.

The Trust had been reluctant to allow visitors to view the works and the house while it was under way, especially taking into account the costs of Health and Safety requirements and the delays these could cause to the essential preservation works. But the need for cash dictated the answer, and the Trust learnt that, through giving the public close access to the preservation works, they actually gave more additional donations as a result of seeing where their money was going and how they were making a difference.

Estate

Panoramic view of the entrance area, showing (left to right) the library, entrance hall, main house, bedroom wing and chapel

House exterior

The house is built of two-types of Bath Stone, and is highly picturesque, bristling with turrets and possessing an elaborate roof. The combined effect of the architecture and chosen materials has been described by journalist Sir Simon Jenkins as "severe". During restoration, stonemasons either conserved and occasionally copy-carving new elements, carving new mouldings to replace standard architectural elements that formed the weathering, as well repointing most of the miles of lime pointing. All stone was accurately matched to the original, with Cotswold oolitic limestone from Veyzeys quarry near Tetbury. The house, which includes the servants' wing and the chapel, was made a Grade II* listed building in 1973, and has since been upgraded to Grade I.

House interior

The Drawing Room, photographed in 1878 by Bedford Lemere

Principal rooms include the library, drawing room, billiard room, dining room and chapel. Some of the ground-floor rooms and the chapel are currently open to the public. Restoration work is under way on the remainder of the house, which will gradually be opened to visitors as the work is completed.

The library is regarded as the most important gentleman’s library in the possession of the Trust. The carpet and some of the furnishings in the library were designed by Crace, whilst the book collection is the most extensive Victorian library collection owned by the Trust.

At the heart of the house is the hallway and staircase, which show the greatest number of changes since the original design. Originally designed around a huge T-shaped staircase lit by gasoliers on newel posts, a heavily carved screen separated the hall from the entrance vestibule, while doors led off to the music room, ante room and other adjoining rooms. After the death of William, his son Antony had the staircase reconfigured by Henry Woodyer in the 1880s to let in more light from the glazed lantern in the roof, and turning the ground floor into a more functional space. At the same time, Antony installed electricity and a service lift. Antony’s son George rehung the larger family paintings here in 1910, including the full length portrait of his grandfather by Sir William Boxall.

Once the Trust took ownership, scaffolding was placed into the hallway to repair the roof lattern. This allowed architectural paint analyst Lisa Oestreicher to identify three principal phases of decoration in the public rooms and spaces: 1860s original; 1870s updates and adaptions; 1887–90 redecoration, which returned the main spaces to the original green colours and motifs created by Crace. Once lattern repairs were complete, the Trust replaced the elderly chenille carpet destroyed by contractors working for Christie's, with a new Wilton carpet with a replica design by Linney Cooper, bought for £45,000 from public lottery donations.

Contents

Tyntesfield is decorated with large amounts of stained glass.

Christie's originally estimated the house contents at in excess of 10,000 items, but 2008 a total of 30,000 items had been listed including: William Butterfield designed silver; original print books by Pugin and Ruskin; an unexploded Second World War bomb; a jewel-encrusted chalice; a roll of 19th century flock wallpaper; a coconut with carved face and hair. By 2013 the inventory had risen to 47,154 items, with still more rooms to unpack and catalog.

Paintings

Many of the families extensive collection of paintings, most sourced from Spain by William, were donated to the Trust. In part this was due to their poor condition, which involved not just water but also ironically guano damage. The most important painting in the collection is the 17th-century painting of St Lawrence attributed to Zambrano, which sits in the centre of one wall of the hall. It was cleaned and repaired by local art conservators Bush and Berry, who work from a chapel built by William Gibbs in the village of Flax Bourton. In 2011, the Trust bought the painting The Mater Dolorosa (Mother of Sorrows) by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo at Christie's auction in New York, having hung at Tyntesfield from when William had purchased it until some time after 1910.

Chapel

Of all the parts of the estate, the chapel required the least amount of work to make it weatherproof. The existing ridge tiles were all removed, micropinned where necessary and repointed in place with NHL5 lime mortar. Like the main house, stonework was repaired and repointing undertaken. The chapel today has no organ, having been removed in the 1950s and donated to a local church, possibly St. Bartholomew's in Failand. The amazing tiled floor has been protected by a special type of matting, which has the photographic image of what is below, so that it looks just like what it covers. There are crosses within the chapel along the walls to commemorate members of the Gibbs family, who are all buried in the local churchyard in Wraxall.

Home Farm Visitor Centre

The Home Farm buildings were built in the 1880s, split over two levels. To the south is a two-storey covered yard with a spectacular timber roof structure, used to rear farm animals. On the upper level is the main yard, where to the east and west are two wings, one side of which housed the former piggery. The farm offices make up the north wing, to fully enclose the square but gently south-sloping yard.

The GradeII* listed buildings needed full renovation, which took a secondary priority in the Trusts plans after the house. The Trust have converted the buildings into an integrated and self-contained visitor centre, which opened in mid-2011 with:

• Upper yard:
  • Ticket and information office
  • Demonstration area: country crafts from visiting crafts people
  • Plant centre: excess plants raised by the gardeners are sold to raise funds
  • Farm-themed play area
  • Secondhand books stall: proceeds from which raise funds for the Trust
• Restaurant: the former two-story covered yard has been fully renovated and converted into a cafe/restaurant, and also houses the gift shop. A new-build staircase, lift and bridge walkway all in steel provide access from the upper yard
• A separate building to the east provides power and heat to the visitor centre, using a combined system of a biomass boiler, solar thermal panels and photovoltaic cells

Park

View from the eastern formal gardens looking up towards the house, April 2008

The house sits within a 150 acres (61 ha) parkland, which the Trust gained from the auction and retained around the property to preserve the house within its environment. The wooded park leads down a tree-lined drive to balustraded terraces, and paths lead to the rose garden, summer houses, the aviary and the former concrete-lined lake (empty since WW2).

Kitchen garden

The kitchen garden includes glasshouses and frames, the large classical Orangery and quarters for the gardeners.

Orangery

The Orangery at Tyntesfield

The Grade II* listed Orangery was once the architectural focal point of the kitchen garden complex. However, by the time that the Trust bought the property, the Orangery was in such a percarious state of deterioration that it was on English Heritage’s Buildings at Risk Register in the highest priority category, A.

Built in 1897, today it is a rare example of a late Victorian orangery in the Classical style. Its seven-bay east/west plan with central entrances, 3 bay north/south, is constructed from Ashlar and red brick, topped by an ironwork hipped-roof which is fully glazed. The panels are made-up of Ionic half-column supports and rusticated corner pilasters, with an entablature broken forward over the columns and pilasters. The centre entrance bay on the west front towards the kitchen garden breaks forward as a portico, with pairs of giant engaged columns and broken pediment with a small oculus. Between each pair of columns are large round-headed windows with Gibbs surrounds and keystones.

To preserve and restore the Orangery, the Trust teamed-up with City of Bath College and Nimbus Conservation Ltd in an innovative partnership, where by 12 trainee stonemasons worked alongside professional craftsmen to hone their skills and carry out the specialist stone work needed. The Trust also introduce workshops for other restoration professionals, academics and eventually opened them to interested members of the public, where all were educated in a hands-on environment in the skills required to repair the building. For this crafts-based training initiative, in 2011 the Trust won a Daily Telegraph sponsored English Heritage Angel Award.

The budget for the works was £420,000, with initial work focused around stabalising the foundations and lower masonry. Much of this was achieved through the injection of stabalising materials into the foundations, which needed time to cure and solidify. Works then proressed to the walls and roof, and finally the decorative embelishments. Today, while part of the Orangery is a dedicated cafe, the rest is an international education centre of excellence for the Trust, training the craftsmen and restoration specialists of tomorrow.

Aviary

The aviary at Tyntesfield is a Grade II listed, situated to the west of the house, adjacent to the footings of the old conservatory. It was built in 1880 to house exotic birds but was later converted to a playhouse for the first Lord Wraxall's daughter, Doreen. It is thought to be one of the most distinctive features of the estate.

Sawmill

Tyntesfield sawmill which is now used as a classroom

Located on a site originally occupied by a foreman's office when the land was used for quarrying, the new sawmill building was completed in 1899, providing electricity via two enclosed steam engines and pneumatic power across the estate. The engines were housed in what is now called the Engine Room, whilst the multiple lead acid batteries were housed in the Lantern Room. After opening, the decision was made to relocate the estates entire sawmill to the building, to enable better access to electrical power. After the steam engines were replaced by diesel generators, mains electricity was provided from the national grid post-WW2. In the 1960s, the sawmill was decommissioned and all wood sold to third party contractors to be converted into sawn wood products.

Under ownership of the Trust, the sawmill has been renovated and converted into a combined learning, educational and business-rentable meeting space, most often used by volunteers to educate visiting school groups. Half of the former wood shed was converted into a "bat palace" to create a new roost site for bat species living in the area, while other half now houses a biomass boiler for the main house, saving 141 tonnes of CO₂ a year over the old oil-fired boiler. The centre was opened in May 2009 by Dame Jenny Abramsky, Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund who funded the works.

Wildlife

The stable block at Tyntesfield, the roof of which is a bat roost

Bats

10 of the 17 species of UK bat are found on the property, with eight alone found within the structure of the house. Species found include the rare and threatened lesser horseshoe bat and greater horseshoe bat. Maintenance work is timed to fit in with hibernating and mating schedules, and new roosts are created during any building work. Visitors may see some of the properties bats on a closed-circuit television system.

Badgers

The estate has a long established record as the home of various badger sets, which are still highly active. In 2012, the Trust were founding wanting in their legal duty to protect the badger sets, with some evidence even of attempts by ground staff to actively remove the badgers. The Trust now works with the Badger Trust, to manage and monitor activity.

Visitor experience

All visitors access the site via the main entrance on the B3128 road, which can be accessed from the M5 motorway following the signs from either junction 19 or 20. Free parking is available 50 metres (160 ft) from the Home Farm Visitor Centre and ticket office. The nearest train station is located at Nailsea and Backwell, which is just over 2 miles (3.2 km) away. A frequent bus service runs from Bristol Bus Station.

The Home Farm Visitor Centre is the first point of access, and provides various services including a cafe, restaurant, shop, toilets and the ticket office. Charges for entry are made either to the estate and gardens, or the house and estate gardens. Entry to the house is via timed ticket in 30 minute entry blocks. There is a 400 metres (1,300 ft) walkway from the visitor centre to the house through the gardens and some woods, or a bio-diesel bus can be taken which has a route which goes via the house to the Orangery.

The house tour route varies by season and in accordance with associated restoration and preservation works, but now includes all main downstairs rooms and a tour of the upstairs facilities. A Trust volunteer guide in each room is available to answer questions and provide additional details, and each room has its own A4 folder of additional information and historic photographs.

Visitors are then encouraged to walk down through the parklands towards the Kitchen Garden and Orangery. The Kitchen Garden complex includes a cafe and toilets, plus gives access to the free bio-diesel bus to take visitors back up the driveway to the main carpark. Additional attractions vary by season, but include six geocaching routes. Focusing on wildlife and habitats, the trails are all located on public rights of way and so are accessible year round without charge.

See also

• Grade I listed buildings in North Somerset
• List of National Trust properties in Somerset

External links

• Tyntesfield information at the National Trust
• Tyntesfield photographic/panoramic tour from the BBC
• Stonemasons working at Tyntesfield