north somerset Archives - James Clay Stuff

April 14, 2025

Clevedon Court #50places2025

After enjoying my National Trust membership in 2023, I decided I would rejoin the Trust for 2025.

I have been to Clevedon Court a number of times over the years. It’s only open for six months of the year and only a few times a week.

Clevedon Court

Medieval manor house and 18th-century terraced garden with wide views of the Mendip Hills. Clevedon Court is an outstanding 14th-century manor house. Purchased by Abraham Elton in 1709, this remarkable survivor from the medieval period has been the ancestral home of the Elton family ever since.

Current saving £73.30
One adult £12.00
Parking – Free
Total saving £12.00
Cumulative saving £194.50
Membership cost £91.20
Net cumulative saving £103.30

I enjoyed my visit to the house and had some interesting conversations with the volunteers.

One interesting aspect of the house was that the Victorian facade which was added in the 1880s was removed in the early 1950s by the National Trust.

When the National Trust agreed to take on the house, the Victorian west wing (but not its Elizabethan south front) were demolished as were a plethora of minor 18th- and 19th-century buildings at the rear.

The Elton family still go and stay there, so though some rooms are open to the public, there are some parts of the house which are private.

The gardens are lovely and well worth walking around.

February 2, 2025February 2, 2025

Tyntesfield #50places2025

After enjoying my National Trust membership in 2023, I decided I would rejoin the Trust for 2025.

Having just visited Barrington Court, I hadn’t planned to visit another National Trust property the next day. I was going to go to Portishead, as when I was at home it was rather sunny. However by the time I was ready to leave the sun had gone in. So I made the decision to head to Tyntesfield.

As Tyntesfield is one of the closest National Trust properties to me (and is open nearly all year round) I have been a fair few times to this lovely house and gardens.

Tyntesfield

An ornate Victorian Gothic Revival house with extensive garden and parkland, just a stone’s throw from Bristol

Current saving -£80.20

One adult £18.00

Parking £5.00

Total saving £23.00

Cumulative saving £34.00

Membership cost £91.20

Net cumulative saving -£57.20

Tyntesfield is a Gothic Revival mansion located in Wraxall, North Somerset, England. It was built in the late 19th century for the Gibbs family, who were wealthy merchants and industrialists. The mansion is set in extensive grounds and gardens, and features a range of architectural styles, including Gothic Revival, Jacobean, and Victorian. The National Trust, a UK conservation charity, now owns and operates Tyntesfield, which is open to the public. Visitors can explore the mansion, gardens, and grounds, and learn about the history of the Gibbs family and the property. Tyntesfield is a popular tourist destination, and is known for its stunning architecture and rich history.

Having parked in the car park (free for National Trust members) I walked through the National Trust entrance and headed to the house though the grounds. This time I went through back way to the house.

I had a great time walking around the house.

It was nice that one of the rooms was open that I had never been in before. It was a 1950s room, full of stuff, but was open as there were some issues with the fire doors.

I like it when we see un-restored spaces in National Trust properties, it adds something to the experience.

There is a lot of stuff at Tyntesfield. One of the challenges is where to put it all. The agreement they had when the National Trust took over the house, was that nothing could be brought into the house, and nothing could be taken away. The Gibbs family were real hoarders, even retaining broken items which had been replaced.

After visiting the house I walked down to the Kitchen Garden. The Orangery has been lovingly restored, and the greenhouses are used to grow plants, and vegetables for the cafe.

I did consider going for a coffee, but in the end I headed home.

This year I have planned to visit fifty places.

January 3, 2024January 2, 2024

A final festive visit to Tyntesfield

For Christmas I got a National Trust membership. It’s being a few years since I was last a member, but now looking forward to visiting new places and going back to places we have been to before.

Back in 2016 I did start to keep a note of how much we saved with the membership, but looking back over the blog, I never kept up to date with that, but with this membership I am intending to blog about the visits we do this year and the savings we made.

We visited Tyntesfield back in January, I also visited in November. I had planned to go before Christmas, but the weather and other things meant that I didn’t actually get there until New Year’s Eve. This was the last day of my membership.

Tyntesfield

An ornate Victorian Gothic Revival house with extensive garden and parkland, just a stone’s throw from Bristol

Current saving £263.35

Adult Ticket £17.00

Parking £3.00

Total saving £20.00

Cumulative saving £417.15

Membership cost £133.80

Net cumulative saving £283.35

I really of feel I got my money’s worth from the membership. I do feel though I didn’t get as much out of it in the last few months, than I did in the first few months of 2023.

Anyhow onto my most recent visit to Tyntesfield. I liked the red ribbons on the bushes along the driveway into the estate. Continue reading “A final festive visit to Tyntesfield”

November 20, 2023November 27, 2023

Tyntesfield Again

For Christmas I got a National Trust membership. It’s being a few years since I was last a member, but now looking forward to visiting new places and going back to places we have been to before.

We visited Tyntesfield back in January, this time I was on my own. I was going for a walk, and decided I would walk the grounds at Tyntesfield and visit the house whilst I was there.

Tyntesfield

An ornate Victorian Gothic Revival house with extensive garden and parkland, just a stone’s throw from Bristol

Current saving £243.55

Adult Ticket £17.00

Parking £3.00

Total saving £20.00

Cumulative saving £397.15

Membership cost £133.80

Net cumulative saving £263.35

Continue reading “Tyntesfield Again”

April 30, 2023April 9, 2025

Clevedon Court

For Christmas I got a National Trust membership. It’s being a few years since I was last a member, but now looking forward to visiting new places and going back to places we have been to before.

Clevedon Court has a limited opening season and isn’t open every day, so having the time and coinciding with Clevedon Court being open, we popped over for a visit.

Clevedon Court

Clevedon Court is an outstanding 14th-century manor house with an 18th-century terraced garden. Purchased by Abraham Elton in 1709, this remarkable survivor from the medieval period has been the ancestral home of the Elton family ever since.

Current saving £90.85

Two Adult Tickets £20.00

Parking n/a

Total saving £20.00

Cumulative saving £244.65

Membership cost £133.80

Cumulative saving £110.85

This is quite a small property compared to other National Trust properties that you can visit. Continue reading “Clevedon Court”

April 9, 2023June 17, 2023

I didn’t go to Tyntesfield

For Christmas I got a National Trust membership. It’s being a few years since I was last a member, but now looking forward to visiting new places and going back to places we have been to before.

I didn’t actually go to Tyntesfield, but my daughter used our membership to visit with a friend’s family.

Tyntesfield

An ornate Victorian Gothic Revival house with extensive garden and parkland, just a stone’s throw from Bristol

Current saving £67.35

Child Ticket £8.50

Parking n/a

Total saving £8.50

Cumulative saving £209.65

Membership cost £133.80

Cumulative saving £75.85

January 8, 2023June 17, 2023

Back to Tyntesfield

For Christmas I got a National Trust membership. It’s being a few years since I was last a member, but now looking forward to visiting new places and going back to places we have been to before.

Following our visit to Knightshayes Court last week, this time we visited Tyntesfield. We have been there before a few times, but this was our first return visit for a fair few years.

Tyntesfield

An ornate Victorian Gothic Revival house with extensive garden and parkland, just a stone’s throw from Bristol

Current saving -£91.30

Family Ticket £38.50

Parking £3.00

Total saving £41.50

Cumulative saving £84.00

Membership cost £133.80

Net cumulative saving -£49.80

Obviously we will need to visit some more places to make the membership cost effective and increase that cumulative saving. Continue reading “Back to Tyntesfield”

August 2, 2019

A treasure of retail ephemeral

Most people throw away their packaging (well hopefully today they recycle it) but at Oakham Treasures in North Somerset there is a treasure trove of retail ephemeral showcasing a snapshot of grocery history that would probably otherwise have disappeared.

It reminded me if similar displays at the Castle Museum in York.

The reconstructed shops at St Fagans near Cardiff also have collections of old grocery packaging.

Do we keep todays rubbish for future generations? Will they reminisce over the stuff they use to buy? Will they be shocked at the enormous use of single use plastic? Who is going to be the guardian of today’s unwanted stuff, that will be the exhibits of the museums of tomorrow.

July 14, 2016

An afternoon at Tyntesfield

For my birthday I received a membership of the National Trust and we have been visiting a fair few places. The membership gives us free entry (and free parking) to hundreds of places across England and Wales as well as entry to properties in sister organisations such as the National Trust for Scotland.

Tyntesfield is quite local to me and I have been meaning to visit for sometime since the National Trust were given the house and gardens.

Tyntesfield is a Victorian Gothic Revival house and estate close to Wraxall in North Somerset. The house is a Grade I listed building. The background to the house started off when in the 1830s a Georgian mansion was built at that location, this was bought by William Gibbs, whose huge fortune came from importing and selling guano to be used as fertilizer.

The house was significantly expanded, extended and remodelled in the 1860s. The dining room was made bigger, and the upper bedrooms were almost doubled in size and given bays. You can see this quite easily when looking around. A chapel was added in the 1870s and though a crypt was planned, it was never consecrated so it was used as storage.

The Gibbs family owned the house until the death of Richard Gibbs in 2001. Tyntesfield was purchased by the National Trust in 2002, after a fundraising campaign to prevent it being sold to private interests and ensure it would be open to the public.

It certainly is a place you could spend all day, but one of the nice things about National Trust membership is you can pop in for a shorter amount of time and not feel you need to get the full value of the entry fee by spending all day there.

The gardens are beautiful and you can spend a lot of time walking through the grounds and gardens.

The house is really interesting and you can see the way in which the house was remodelled and extended over the years. It certainly is interesting to see how the other half lived back then.

I really liked the library, which was a huge space, probably could fit most people’s houses in there! Sad that though full of books, some had never been opened or read, true some were reference books and you might not have needed to read all of it, but often these libraries were purchased more for show than a thirst for reading.

We had a nice cup of tea and scone in the cow barn to finish the day off.