Conserving the house at Tyntesfield

A National Trust staff member carefully cleaning a historic painting at Tyntesfield — Carefully cleaning the frame of a painting at Tyntesfield

In 2002, Tyntesfield was saved by your contributions, the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund. Now, the National Trust team onsite are working every day to conserve the house and its historic collection.

Conservation cleaning

Throughout the year, Tyntesfield's conservation assistants work to ensure the house's Victorian interiors, furniture and collection are properly cared for.

This involves careful cleaning with specialist equipment as any build up of dirt or dust can cause historic items and interiors to become damaged.

Conservator at Tyntesfield cleaning a portrait of Antony Gibbs — A conservator carefully cleaning a portrait of Antony Gibbs

Preventing light damage

A lot of Tyntesfield's historic interiors, furniture and collection are very sensitive to light and can deteriorate if they are exposed to it.

To prevent this from happening, the house team carefully monitor the light levels in every room and adjust the window blinds accordingly.

A National Trust Conservation Assistant measures the light levels in a room of Tyntesfield house — Our conservation assistants carefully monitor the light levels in the house

Restoring textiles

Our volunteer textile team are trained in restoring historic textiles.

Currently, they are working to restore the curtains from the Organ Room, which have become fragile due to light damage.

One of Tyntesfield's conservation volunteers works on restoring a historic curtain — Carefully restoring a historic curtain that had sustained light damage

Conservation in the outdoors

As well as caring for the house and its historic collections, the team at Tyntesfield are also working to conserve the gardens and wider estate.

You can find out more about a recent conservation project to preserve the woodland at Tyntesfield, and across Bristol, here.