Tyntesfield

It was a warm and bright day, without being sunny. We met up with Rebecca for breakfast and, as we finished were joined by Tim and Beth, and Simon and Clare and the kids. Becky had to check-out and was heading down for a camping weekend in Dorset.

We had originally thought of visiting Berkeley Castle but it turns out that it is closed on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday for private functions. The second position on the visit-list was Tyntesfield House. This had intrigued me since it was sold to. The National Trust in 2002. I remember seeing coverage on the News, at the time. It would appear that among those seeking to purchase the property were Kylie Minogue and Madonna. Fortunately, the NT won through.

Tyntesfield is a few miles south of Bristol, about an hour away from our hotel. It was a pretty easy journey, being Thursday, but I would not have liked to do it on Friday or Saturday when the holiday traffic fills the M5. After fighting with the parking machine I managed to get a ticket for the windscreen and we made our way onto the property. We passed the Home Farm and walked up through the woods and approached the house from the back lawns. The driveway was lined with shaped holly bushes and manicure lawn stretched in all directions. On our left the ground rose and the lawn disappeared through an enchanting woodland filled with copper beech, horse chestnut, cedar, birch and, of course oak.

We made our way to the front of the house and entered. It was high gothic revival in style and still contained about 70,000 original artefacts from when the Gibb family were in residence. Like most NT buildings, in an attempt to protect the contents from light damage, all of the blinds and shutters were drawn. This meant that visitors wandered round in semi darkness. Having completed the circuit downstairs, we climbed the main staircase and had a peek at the one or two rooms that were open on the first floor before going through to the chapel. This is reputedly, the second largest private chapel in England. (When asked where the largest was, they could answer… but I suspect it might be at Arundel Castle).

From the house we wandered down to the Orangery and walled garden. We were able to grab a pasty and a cup of tea before wandering back up to the house and then back to the car. It was a good run back to the hotel and we spent the remains of the afternoon on the patio with a drink. Beset by wasps, we finally gave in and went inside. For dinner, we stayed in the bar and had a bar meal.

I had been in touch with Stuart from Worcester in the hope we might meet up during our sojourn in the area. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get a slot that suited both diaries. Maybe next time.