Tyntesfield

Tyntesfield
Tyntesfield, south side
Location map and quick summary Former names Tyntes Place General information Type Country House Architectural style Gothic Revival Town or city Wraxall, North Somerset Country England Coordinates 51°26′25″N 2°42′49″W / 51.4403°N 2.7135°W / 51.4403; -2.7135 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 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 Website Tyntesfield @ National Trust References

Tyntesfield is a Victorian Gothic Revival house and estate near Wraxall, North Somerset, England. The house is a Grade I listed building named after the Tynte baronets, who had owned estates in the area since about 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, which was bought by English businessman William Gibbs, whose huge fortune came from guano used as fertilizer. In the 1860s Gibbs had the house significantly expanded and remodelled; a chapel was added in the 1870s. The Gibbs family owned the house until the death of Richard Gibbs in 2001.

Tyntesfield was purchased by the National Trust in June 2002, after a fundraising campaign to prevent it being sold to private interests and ensure it would be open 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 they are added to the tour.

The mansion was visited by 216,759 people in 2014, a rise of 1 per cent on the previous year.

The land on which the house and its estate were developed was originally part of the Tynte family estate. The family had lived in the area since the 1500s, but their primary residence was Halswell House in Goathurst, near Bridgwater.

By the late 1700s, John Tynte owned what is now the Tyntesfield estate; at that time the house was approached by an avenue of elm trees, planted after they were bequeathed 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 in Brockley his principal residence. Tynte's Place was downgraded to a farmhouse and 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 demolished the old farmhouse. Further remodelling was undertaken by Robert Newton of Nailsea.