Tyntesfield Mansion is located near Wraxhall in North Somerset, England. The Victorian Gothic Revival house is named after the Tynte barons who owned the estate since the 1500s. A 16th century hunting lodge once sat on the site and was leased as a farmhouse until the 19th century. In 1813, the farmhouse was demolished, and a Georgian mansion was built on the site. In 1843, the English businessman William Gibb purchased the estate. He enlarged the house by adding an extra floor, two new wings, and towers. He even added a fully fitted bathroom for his wife. The mansion has 23 main bedrooms and a total of 47 rooms, which includes the servants’ wing. The interior boasts gilded paneling, woodwork, moldings, and decorative chimneypieces in the Gothic style; the craftsmanship of the pieces are considered works of art. The contents of the house were vast and numbered over 30,000, which included paintings, books, a jewel-encrusted chalice, a 20th century washing machine, and even an unexploded WWII bomb. The interior includes a library, drawing room, and billiard room. Gibb’s final addition was the Gothic chapel, constructed in the 1870s. The Gibb family owned the house until 2001. The National Trust purchased Tyntesfield in 2002. The National Trust preserved the house and its contents but sold off some of the land. The once 3,000-acre estate now sits on 150 acres. Interestingly, ten of the seventeen species of bats in the U.K. are found on the property, with some on the rare species list. The estate is open to the public and has a farm visiting center with a café and a restaurant, gardens with an aviary converted into a playhouse, an orangery, glasshouses, a sawmill converted into a learning center, and a bat palace.
