A Neo-Gothic home

The extravagant house of Tyntesfield that we see today was built for William Gibbs (1790–1875), a merchant who made his fortune in trade with Spain and South America. Formerly known as Tyntes Place, the estate – renamed Tyntesfield – was bought by William Gibbs in 1843.

When William Gibbs, whose fortune derived from the guano trade, purchased Tyntesfield in 1843, he acquired a symmetrical Georgian mansion built some thirty years before. In 1854 he commissioned John Gregory Crace to redesign the principal rooms, providing gilded panelling, moulding and wood carvings. Then, in 1863, Gibbs engaged the architect John Norton to greatly expand and remodel the house. The result is a picturesque if asymmetrical Gothic Revival house whose outline bristles with turrets, pitches and gables. Built of two types of Bath stone, the exterior of Tyntesfield features naturalistic carvings of flora, fauna and exotic medieval beasts. In 1873-5 Gibbs commissioned Arthur Blomfield to build a Gothic Chapel which stands as a remarkably complete example of High Victorian ecclesiastical craftsmanship with filigree wrought-ironwork, stained glass windows by Wooldridge, a floor made of precious materials by Powell & Sons and mosaics by Salviati & Co