[104462] Tyntesfield : Stables

Tyntesfield, Wraxall, Somerset, 1863-65.

Yhe National Trust.

 

Stables, coach-houses, stable-hand's accommodation, dated 1888.

Possibly by Henry Woodyer (1816-1896).

Grade ll listed.

 

The Stables.

Ironwork by St Pancras Iron Works, London.

 

Tyntesfield was acquired by the National Trust in 2002 and was undergoing extensive restoration on our visit. The stables were still as found by the Trust.

 

An ornate Victorian Gothic Revival house with extensive garden and parkland, Tyntesfield was not intended to be an extravagant statement of wealth, power or politics. Its purpose was simple: to serve as a family home.

 

Originally a smaller Georgian house, Tyntesfield was transformed into a Gothic Revival masterpiece. Its bespoke architecture reflects the devout Anglo-Catholic beliefs of the Gibbs family. Here they invested their wealth derived from controlling the import of Peruvian ‘guano’ fertiliser.

 

William Gibbs had become a partner in the family trading company and by the time of Queen Victoria's accession in 1837 had, with his brother Henry, circumspectly steered their business through the French Wars and the dissolution of Spanish colonial interests. William became sole owner in 1842 and the following 40 years produced annual profits that would have reached beyond his ancestors' imagining. Gibbs' Peruvian office had secured contracts for the export to Britain of guano, the nitrogen-rich deposits of seabird droppings that became a principal fertiliser for the increase of wheat yields.

 

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/tyntesfield/features/william-gib...

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