Tyntesfield was purchased by the National Trust in June 2002, after a fundraising campaign to prevent it being sold to private interests and ensure it would be open to the public.

[5] By the late 1700s, John Tynte owned what is now the Tyntesfield estate; at that time the house was approached by an avenue of elm trees, planted after they were bequeathed in the 1678 will of Sir Charles Harbord to the people of Wraxall in memory of two boys he had apprenticed from the village.

[13] This was mined by indentured Chinese labour on the Chincha Islands in conditions which the Peruvian government acknowledged in 1856 had degenerated "into a kind of Negro slave trade".

[17] But as he travelled regularly on business to the Port of Bristol he required a residence in the area; thus it was, in 1843, he came to buy Tyntes Place, which he subsequently renamed Tyntesfield.

[19] This wing of the Anglican Church advocated the view set out in the architect Augustus Pugin's 1836 book Contrasts, which argued for the revival of the medieval Gothic style, and "a return to the faith and the social structures of the Middle Ages".

[25] During restoration, stonemasons either conserved or, on occasion, copy-carved new sections, carving new mouldings to replace standard architectural elements that formed the weathering, as well as repointing most of the miles of lime pointing.

Other notable features of the house are glass by James Powell and Harry Ellis Wooldridge, ironwork by Hart, Son, Peard and Co. and mosaics by Salviati.

[17] Gibbs' final addition to Tyntesfield was added between 1872 and 1877, when he commissioned Arthur Blomfield to add a Gothic chapel to the north side of the house.

Also being teetotal, he added to the estate's holding by buying the local Failand Inn, which enabled him to control any riotous behaviour (it was sold to Courage Brewery in 1962 by the 2nd Lord Wraxall).

After graduating with a Master of Arts degree from Exeter College, Oxford, he joined the North Somerset Yeomanry where he attained the rank of Major.

[1] Antony spent the first night after turning on the electrical system watching the main entrance light, to ensure that it did not create a fire and was hence safe for his family.

[41] Under his ownership, the Drawing Room was redecorated in a Renaissance Revival Venetian style,[42] In the process, Crace's stencilling was over painted and then covered by damasked silk, the Norton fireplace was removed, the furniture replaced with Edwardian pieces, and the carpet dyed by Sketchleys.

[19] During the Second World War, Clifton High School was relocated to the property, and in 1941 the U.S. Army Medical Corps established a facility for wounded soldiers, known as the 74th General Hospital, in the estate grounds.

[46][47][48] With many tents later replaced by prefabricated buildings and some nissen huts, at one point in the war following D-Day it became the largest US Army hospital in Europe.

[53] With the Trust as a result placing Tyntesfield second on its list of priorities for preservation, Girouard said of the property:[54] There is no other Victorian country house which so richly represents its age as Tyntesfield.In his later life, Richard Gibbs recognised that the diverse interests of the large family, and the need to invest heavily in even basic refurbishment of the house to make it weather-secured and habitable, would require the family to sell Tyntesfield.

[52] When Richard died, the trust he had set up stated that, should the trustees agree by majority that the estate should be sold, such a sale should be completed within 12 months, and to the highest bidder.

[56] However, the new Director-General of the National Trust, Fiona Reynolds, launched a £35 million appeal in May 2002 via the "Save Tyntesfield" campaign, with support from designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, newsreader Jon Snow and several top architects and historians.

But the need for cash dictated the answer, and the Trust learnt that, through giving the public close access to the preservation works, they actually gave more additional donations as a result of seeing where their money was going and how they were making a difference.

The most important painting in the collection is the 17th-century work by Alonso de Llera Zambrano of St Lawrence, which hangs in the middle of one of the walls of the hall.

It was cleaned and repaired by local art conservators Bush and Berry, who are based in a chapel William Gibbs built in the village of Flax Bourton.

[19] In 2011 the Trust bought the painting The Mater Dolorosa (Mother of Sorrows) by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo at Christie's auction in New York, which had hung at Tyntesfield since William purchased it until some time after 1910.

[75] From the latter part of the nineteenth century onwards, William Gibbs and descendants added interesting specimens to the existing trees in the two areas of parkland to the South and West of the house and gardens.

[1] A five-year project by the National Trust, underway in 2022, to conserve ancient, veteran and notable trees,[77] in a number of sites across Bristol, included Tyntesfield.

The Tyntesfield site is of additional national significance because its many ancient and veteran trees support populations of rare, vulnerable and endangered invertebrates.

The centre entrance bay on the west front towards the kitchen garden breaks forward as a portico, with pairs of giant engaged columns and broken pediment with a small oculus.

[81] To preserve and restore the Orangery, the Trust teamed-up with City of Bath College and Nimbus Conservation Ltd in an innovative partnership, whereby 12 trainee stonemasons worked alongside professional craftsmen to hone their skills and carry out the specialist stonework needed.

The Trust also introduced workshops for other restoration professionals, academics and eventually opened them to interested members of the public, where all were educated in a hands-on environment in the skills required to repair the building.

[85] Located on a site originally occupied by a foreman's office when the land was used for quarrying, the new sawmill building was completed in 1899, providing electricity via two enclosed steam engines and pneumatic power across the estate.

[86] Under the Trust's ownership the sawmill has been renovated and converted into a combined learning, educational and rentable function space for businesses and members of the public.

[92] In 2002, after its purchase by the National Trust but before its opening to the public, the house and its contents were explored in the Oxford Films documentary, The Lost World of Tyntesfield, hosted by art historian Dan Cruickshank.