Tyntesfield

When William Gibbs, whose fortune derived from the guano trade, purchased Tyntesfield in 1843, he acquired a symmetrical Georgian mansion built some thirty years before. In 1854 he commissioned John Gregory Crace to redesign the principal rooms, providing gilded panelling, moulding and wood carvings. Then, in 1863, Gibbs engaged the architect John Norton to greatly expand and remodel the house. The result is a picturesque if asymmetrical Gothic Revival house whose outline bristles with turrets, pitches and gables. Built of two types of Bath stone, the exterior of Tyntesfield features naturalistic carvings of flora, fauna and exotic medieval beasts. In 1873-5 Gibbs commissioned Arthur Blomfield to build a Gothic Chapel which stands as a remarkably complete example of High Victorian ecclesiastical craftsmanship with filigree wrought-ironwork, stained glass windows by Wooldridge, a floor made of precious materials by Powell & Sons and mosaics by Salviati & Co.

Tyntesfield, Somerset

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Four generations of the Gibbs family called Tyntesfield home, filling it with the splendid and the ordinary to create one of the last major High Victorian houses still in private hands in the twenty first century. Crace carpets, William Butterfield designed silver and a fine collection of books including the writings of Pugin and Ruskin are kept along side letters, picnic sets, stationery and developing technology. Original carpets, fabrics, wallpapers and stencilling have survived because blinds and shutters were closed against the sunlight and objects were stored away. During the purchase of the estate, the grandest and simplest of these were bought to capture the story of Tyntesfield.

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