Tyntesfield, North Somerset

1.  After leaving the ticket office follow the path until you reach a set of cross roads.

2.  Turn left and head up the drive leaving the woodland on your left. This plantation is planted with Douglas fir, Sitka spruce and Corsican pine as well as cherry trees. At the top of the woodland a track leads off to the right around the top of the field.

3.  Follow this track for 400 metres to a gate, passing a single avenue of monkey puzzle trees. Go through the gate and past Summerhouse Cottage. Opposite the cottage on your right is the summerhouse which was used as a picnic area for shooting parties in Victorian times. Have a look through the window where you will see a table made from a slice of oak tree. You will eventually reach a five barred gate in the wall on your left.

4.  Go through the gate and walk diagonally to your right to a metal fence post. This fence surrounds an asphalt water-catch installed in 1890 to provide Tyntesfield House with a supply of soft water.

5.  Continue diagonally across the field to a line of trees where the remains of large Nissen huts used by the Americans during the Second World War can be found. The camp was used to service and modify vehicles for D-Day.

6.  Now retrace your steps back to the summerhouse.

7.  Just before the summerhouse you will see a combe, or dry valley, going downhill to your left. Follow this until you reach the drive.

8.  Turn right and follow the road back to the ticket office, passing the Chaplain’s House and Lodge, which was built for the family’s chaplain to live in.

Features

The Summerhouse and Summerhouse Cottage

The summerhouse and Summerhouse Cottage are on the western edge of Tyntesfield Plantation. The plantation is the great belt of ornamental woodland that forms the backdrop to Tyntesfield. The decorative summerhouse was probably built in the 1860s for the Gibbs family – a perfect venue for picnics and shooting parties with wonderful south-westerly views. Inside the summerhouse is a table made from an enormous slice of oak tree. Summerhouse Cottage is an estate cottage built before 1883. It was completely refurbished in 2009 as a National Trust holiday cottage.

Tyntesfield technology reclaimed by nature

Tyntesfield made full use of Victorian technology. The extensive estate water supply system dates back to the 1860s when the house was remodelled. The water-catch was added in around 1890 by Antony Gibbs. It’s an area of asphalt where rain water was collected and fed into a collection tank further down the hill. This was for use in the soft water system in the house and other buildings. The water-catch is no longer used and is now cracking and slowly being colonised by lime-loving plants growing in the cracks.

Tyntesfield at war

During the Second World War there were two US Army encampments on the Tyntesfield estate. At the water-catch you can see the remnants of floors from the large Nissen huts erected in 1944. The camp was used to service and modify vehicles in preparation for the D-Day landings. It was demolished in around 1960. The other camp was at the bottom end of the estate, to the south, and is in private ownership.