National Trust announce open house at Tyntesfield near Nailsea

TYNTESFIELD, the spectacular Victorian country house on the edge of Nailsea reopens to the public this spring.

The first house and garden tours of the new season start before Easter.

And from Saturday, March 20, visitors get the opportunity to explore five new rooms on the first floor.

This includes one of the grandest bedrooms, the Stuart Room, complete with its beautiful furnishings.

In the other rooms restoration work continues showing visitors a ‘behind the scenes’ view.

Visitors will see the magnificent hallway gallery up close as they descend the grand hall staircase, which will be adorned with a newly rewoven carpet this spring.

Previously threadbare, the new carpet is rich in colour and texture and will match the one originally laid in 1890.

Visitors services manager Rebecca Aubrey Fletcher said: “I can’t wait to open the doors again and reveal new areas of the house.

“Providing access to and conserving this amazing place for people to see is what the National Trust is all about so it feels great to be able to show people even more of it.

“We’re still carrying out major restoration work on the house and our incredible scaffolding, which some have said is almost as impressive as the house itself, will be up for most of the year. 

“This gives people a really rare opportunity to see often unseen aspects of the house and watch specialist craftsmen at work."

This year Tyntesfield also gets a 21st century update as the old oil-fed heating makes way for a modern, environmentally friendly biomass boiler which will power a conservation standard heating system – keeping the house and its contents at the perfect temperature and humidity.

It will make Tyntesfield amongst the first Grade 1 listed houses to be heated entirely by wood fuel.

National Trust senior buildings surveyor Tim Cambourne said: “The project has moved on so much over the past year – it’s incredibly satisfying to see the repair of areas which were previously in such a sorry state.

“I love the fact that you can now catch glimpses of the striking patterned roof tiles which we have reinstated.

“It’s a really obvious sign that things are happening.

“Throughout the year more and more will be revealed – rooms will be reinstated, dust covers will gradually come off and, of course, the new roof will be unveiled.”

There are also lots of fun family activities from trails and craft activities to photography competitions and volunteering days in the woods. 

The gothic mansion set in rolling grounds was once the home of George Richard Lawley Gibbs - the second Baron Wraxall.

Lord Wraxall, a former Coldstream Guard, died alone in the house in July 2001 aged 73.

He was unmarried and although locally everyone expected him to marry Yorkshire-born Anne Betherick, his mother, the honorable Ursula Mary Lawley, and his godmother Queen Mary, wife of George V, hoped for a royal marriage.

Sadly he did neither. Anne a stalwart of Woodspring Conservative Party also died unmarried in 2009.

During his lifetime Lord Wraxall – known as Richard - was a governor at Nailsea School and chairman of Woodspring Conservative Party.

He used his home to host many political parties with VIP guests from both houses of parliament.

On his death the National Trust successfully launched a multi-million pound fundraising bid to buy the property - saving one of Englands finest Victorian estates for the nation and creating a fantastic resource for local people. 

Lord Wraxall was a descendant of Antony Gibbs, a wool merchant upon whose fortune the house was built. Other Gibbs relatives made money from importing seabird droppings from South America for use as fertilizer.

More than 40,000 items of clutter have been found ‘hoarded’ by four generations of the aristocratic family including an unexploded bomb, a jewel encrusted chalice, a coconut carved like a human head and moth-eaten teddy bears.

All are being catalogued and Tyntesfield now has the largest collection in the National Trust... and counting. 

With its spectacular house, formal gardens, kitchen garden,  arboretum and rolling parkland the property is currently attracting more than 100,000 visitors annually.

A year round events programme means there is always something going on at Tyntesfield whatever your interest.

This spring it includes:

* Garden tours three times a day at noon, 1.15pm and 2.30pm.The hour-long guided garden walk is free although normal admission charges apply.

* Spring trail for children throughout March and April. This gives youngsters the opportunity to explore the first signs of spring. A trail map is available from the visitor reception.  Normal admission charges plus £1 per trail

* Daffodil days throughout April. This is the perfect opportunity as Tyntesfield bursts to life with a stunning array of daffodils and bluebells to snap a beautiful photo to enter into a competition later in the year.

For the house the first day, first floor opening is on Saturday, March 20, from 11am – 4pm. A selection of the bedrooms and bathrooms are open the very first time.

An Open Drawers day is on Wednesday, March 24, 11am– 4pm. This is an opportunity to see inside cupboards and peek in drawers as the house team open up furniture and display more of the fascinating house.

Full details of opening times and events can be found by clicking HERE.

Admission is free for National Trust members and a discount is offered to groups and to those arriving by cycle, on foot or public transport. 

The standard admission for adults is £10, children £5 and a family (two adults and three children) is £24.50. There are reduced prices for visitors to the gardens only. 

Click HERE to go to the Tyntesfield blogspot to hear all the below stairs gossip!

* Another beautiful National Trust house is just down the road. The outstanding 14th-century manor house and 18th-century terraced garden at Clevedon Court, home of the Elton family, opens on Thursday, April 1. Further details can be found HERE.