Tyntesfield Gardens

Our next stop was Tyntesfield, a relatively young house, Victorian, and a relatively recent National Trust acquisition, 2002, by way of L20,000,000 two-month public drive that rescued the house and all its contents from public auction. It is a neo-Gothic country house, suberbly done, all of a piece, with four generations of Victorian and later furnishings; plus several hundred acres of park and gardens. We started our visit with a garden and park tour.

A beautiful asian plane tree that caught my attention even before the guide said
it was her favorite tree at Tyntesfield

A giant purple beech, one of several

The interesting thing is, when you stand under a purple
beech, the leaves are green

Waste not, want not...well, that didn't exactly work out for the Gibbs family,
but they did save much, benefiting all the rest of us; these are spiral staircase
parts later used as a planter in one of the gardens

Garden view of the house; a giant monkey puzzle had stood here for years, now
replaced by this youngster

A disused azalea maze that the Trust hopes to rebuild; they have much work to
do here, as elsewhere

Beautiful green; it's summer now, despite the fact the
temperature has yet to go much above 70

Out in the building adjoining the walled (kitchen) garden and green-houses;
the green-houses were heated, so some of the servants slept out here, in the
little bunk cabins, to keep the fires going

Cherry tree on the kitchen garden wall

A chef's "chop and chat" out in the garden; wonderful free samples of breads,
strawberries, fruit drinks, etc.