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	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) Arthur Blomfield (Chapel)
Other designers	Powell; Wooldridge; Salviati; Hart, Son, Peard and Co.
Main contractor	William Cubitt & Co.
Designations	Grade I listed

Tyntesfield is a Victorian Gothic Revival estate near Wraxall, North Somerset, England, near Nailsea, seven miles from Bristol.

The house was acquired by the National Trust in June 2002 after a fund raising campaign to prevent it being sold to private interests and ensure it be opened to the public. It was opened to visitors for the first time just 10 weeks after the acquisition and as more rooms are restored they are added to the tour. It was visited by 104,451 people in 2009, a 3.4% rise on the previous year.

History

Background

Main article: Antony Gibbs & Sons

The lands on which the house and associated estate developed were originally part of the Tynte family estate, who were based at Halswell House in Goathurst near Bridgwater.

In 1843, the property was bought by businessman William Gibbs, who had made his money from being a founding-partner in the family business of 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 as high as the King of Spain. 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 Portugese 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 eldest 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's 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, being a man of substance who travelled regulary to the Port of Bristol on business, he sought out a residence in the area. His sister Harriet had married her cousin George Gibbs, who lived at Belmont adjacent to the Tyntes Place estate. Himself a director of the GWR, it was through introduction via George that William purchased Tyntesfield, 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

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

Tyntesfield had been demolished and rebuilt only 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 builders, the property was substantially remodelled as the benchmark Anglo-Catholic Gothic Revival architecture country house extravaganza that now stands.

Norton's design wrapped the original house, adding: two new wings; an extra floor; and towers. Norton, whose design was intended to offer the illusion that the house was the work of several different historical periods, emphasized the restoration of architectural continuity as Gibbs's religious faith emphasized the Church of England's rediscovery of its Catholic traditions (William and Blanche were leading members of the traditional-revivalist Oxford Movement). Resultantly, while some walls remained plain others were decorated with a mixture of Gothic and naturalistic carvings. The front and south faces are faced in one shade of Bath Stone, while the rear west facing is faced in a second, and has some plastered faces. Norton topped the design with a concerted effort to dramatically reshape the roof, resulting in an irregularly stepped shape. 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 equally dramatic. 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. These 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 berooms and 47 in total including servants accomodation came to £70,000, equivalent to 18 months gross profit from all of Gibbs's business interests.

After completion of the main building works, Gibbs ceated 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 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 spaned over 6,000 acres (2,400 ha), encompassing 1,000 acres (400 ha) of forestry, spaning from Portishead in the north to the south of the valley in which the main house lay, and employing over 500 workers across house and estate.

Chapel

The chapel as viewed from the main entrance courtyard, to its south

Gibbs final adition to Tyntesfield was between between 1872 and 1877, when he commissioned Arthur Blomfield to add a dramatic chapel to the northside of the house. Modelled on Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, it housed an extensive crypt in which Gibbs intended to be buried. However, combined opposition from both the vicar of the local All Saints Church, Wraxall and the churches patron's 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, holding twice-daily prayer meetings for the family and their guests, which after evening prayers the patriarch Gibbs in his chair bade each family member and guest goodnight in turn.

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, circa 1862-63

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. William Gibbs died at Tyntesfield on 3 April 1875. After a service at the chapel within the estate grounds 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 from Exeter College, Oxford, he joined the North Somerset Yeomanry where he reached the rank of Major. After marrying Janet Louisa Merivale on 22 June 1872, he returned home to run the families estate. He held various positions within the establishment, including Justice of the Peace and later Deputy Lieutenant of Somerset. Antony and his wife had 10 children.

In the 1880s Antony had the hallway staircase reconfigured by Henry Woodyer to let in more light from the glazed lantern in the roof, turning the ground floor into a more functional space. At the same time, Antony installed electricity and a service lift; he spent the first night after turning on the system watching the main entrance light to ensure that it didn't create a fire and was hence safe for his family.

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

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. Elected as MP for Bristol West in 1918, he held the position until his resignation in 1928. During his Parliaentry career, he held the positions as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for the Colonies the Rt Hon Walter Hume Long, MP (later Viscount Long of Wraxall). George Gibbs was elevated to the peerage as Baron Wraxall in 1928.

Whilst working for his father, George had commissioned further alterations to be made to the house by architect Henry Woodyer in the 1880's. The major part of this was the removal 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 own ownership, whilst trying to portray the Drawing Room as 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 died by Sketchleys.

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 Goerge 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 on 28 October 1931, age 58 at Tyntesfield from pneumonia.

Ursula Gibbs: 1931-1979

The young widow Ursula Gibbs was left with two children under two years of age, little income, and a vast country estate and farm to run. However, raised a country girl on her own families vast country farm estate in Cheshire, she was more than adequately trained to undertake the required job. Usula was noted for her efficency and practicality, and hence in 1935 when the clock tower need substanial repairs to overcome dry and wet-rot, she simply had it disassembled, with the metal parts stored for possible later useage and the roof realigned as if the clock tower had never existed.

Already the chair of the Red Cross in Somerset, during World War II Ursula allowed various boarding schools to relocate and hold their lessons in the vast property, whilst she also allowed the U.S. Army Medical Corps to establish a facility for wounded soldiers known as the 74th General Hospital in the estate grounds. Bristol was heavily bombed durign the Nazi Luftwaffe blitz, and often bombs landed in the estate grounds, one of which badly damaged the lattern roof light over the hallway. Ater the cessation of hostilities, in 1946 Ursula applied to the Ministry of Defence for a repair grant, but was turned down. Resultantly, 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.

George Gibbs, 2nd Baron Wraxall: 1979-2001

George (known as Richard), was born on 16 May 1928. At his christening, Queen Mary stood as one of his God Parents. 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 thier 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 eventually rose to the rank of captain, where he spent eight years. His mother was upset at the duration that he spent in the British Army, wanting him to come home and fulfill his family duty by returning to run the estate. After he retired from the Army, a compromise was made where by he joined the Territorial Army, subsequently rising to the rank of major with the North Somerset and Bristol Yeomanry. He was also Deputy Lieutenant for the county of Avon.

Once engaged, he never married or had children. He very much enjoyed the country life of hunting, shooting and fishing, but 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, is now the third Baron Wraxall.

National Trust purchase

Concerned with the demolition and desecration of various historic country houses since the end of WW2 (450 great houses were completely demolished in England between 1945 and 1955), in the 1970's the National Trust comissioned architect Mark Girouard to catalog and assess the remaining Victorian country houses across the United Kingdom for significance and structural integrity. He published his findings in both a report, and later pubished them in the book The Victorian Country House, which in the revised second edition of 1976 he included Tyntesfield having now being allowed access. With the Trust resultantly having placed 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.

During the later periods of the life of George Gibbs, 2nd Baron Wraxall, he recognised that a combination of the diversified interests of the large family, and the need to invest heavily in even basic refurbishment of Tyntesfield to make it weather-secured and liveable in, required the family to probably sell Tyntesfield. Added to the problems of substantial Death duties which would become due on his death, Richard drew up a will based around a trust which bequethed his fortune via the trust to the surviving children of his brother and half sister, a total of 19 beneficaries.

Richard died unmarried in 2001 from complications arising from an asthma attack, having reduced his useage of the substantial accomodation within Tyntesfield to just three rooms, with the entire catering requirements for his regular weekend shooting parties provided for by a microwave oven located within the Butler's pantry. The trust that he had set-up stated that should the trustee's agree by majority that the Tyntesfield estate should be sold, that such a sale should be completed within 12months, 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 was listed for sale by Savills in three main lots (total estimated at £15million); with Christie's contracted to secure the sale of the house and estate contents via a separate auction (total estimated at a further £15million).

Competing with no special status amongst the bidders, rumoured to include pop stars Madonna and Kylie Minogue, the new Director-General of the National Trust Fiona Reynolds launched a £35million appeal in May 2002 via the "Save Tyntesfield" campaign, with support from designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, newsreader Jon Snow and a number of 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 £17.4million 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

Since taking owership in 2002, National Trust staff have been securing the house and gardens, preserving them and the contents, and then cataloging 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 employed and volunteer staff exceeded 800 people, three times the number engaged by any other NT property.

The initial conservation work focused around weather proofing the house structure, which involved:

• Repairing the roof (20 times the size of the average British families home)
• Electrically rewire 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 candle and later gas, which means that additional light damage to the interiors is minimised
• Complete replumbing to replace much of the original lead piping
• Designing and then implementing a fireproofing scheme, mainly through the design of a suitable compartmentation system

At the height of the restoration works, 28 miles (45 km) of scaffolding tubes enveloped the buildings exterior and interior. These initial works cost in excess of £10million, much of which was raised through later 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 underway, 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, that they actually gave more additional donation monies as a result of seeing where their monies were going and how they were making a difference.

Estate

East side including the front entrance

Veranda — south side

Tyntesfield is decorated with large amounts of stained glass

House exterior

The house is built of Bath stone, and is highly picturesque, bristling with turrets and possessing an elaborate roof. 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

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.

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

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 an unexploded Second World War bomb, a jewel-encrusted chalice, a roll of 19th-century flock wallpaper and a coconut with carved face and hair. By 2013, the inventory had risen to over 50,000 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 example 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.

Chapel

Of all the parts of the estate, the chapel required the least amount of work, with just some new coping tiles required to repair the roof. The chapel today has no organ, having been removed in the 1950s and donated to a local church. 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.

Kitchen garden

The kitchen garden includes glasshouses and frames, a large classical orangery and quarters for the gardeners. The orangery has been designated as a Grade II* listed building and is included in the Buildings at Risk Register produced by English Heritage.

Park

The wooded park leads down a tree-lined drive to balustraded terraces, and paths lead to the rose garden, summer houses, the aviary and a lake (empty).

Aviary

The aviary at Tyntesfield is a Grade II listed building and is situated west of the house which is 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 late Lord Wraxall's daughter, Doreen. It is thought to be one of the most distinctive features of the estate.

See also

• List of Grade I listed buildings in North Somerset

External links

Media related to Tyntesfield at Wikimedia Commons

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