Guano extraction was dangerous and living conditions were poor. Most extraction was performed by indentured Chinese laborers who worked in slavery-like conditions, and who were economically bound to earn back their transport, board and lodging costs before making a profit. Before slavery was outlawed in Peru in 1854, guano was also extracted by some enslaved people, as well as convicts, conscripts and army deserters.
A. Gibbs & Sons guano business operated from 1842 to 1861. During this time, workers’ conditions – including pay and medical care – improved under Gibbs’s control, coupled with pressure from external observers.
In 1842 George Gibbs died and control of Antony Gibbs & Sons passed to sole partner William Gibbs. The profitability of the guano trade inspired a popular music hall ditty ‘William Gibbs made his dibs, Selling the turds of foreign birds.’ In 1858 William retired and control of the family firm passed to his nephew Henry Hucks Gibbs. Those profits were used from 1863 to transform Tyntesfield into a lavish country retreat for William and his wife (Matlida) Blanche (1817–87) and their seven children.
Architecture and faith
The Gibbs were devout High-Church Anglicans and supported the reinstatement of pre-Reformation, Roman Catholic practices into the Church of England. They were members of the Oxford Movement, whose philosophies were published by prominent ‘Tractarians’ like John Henry, later Cardinal, Newman and John Keble.
Oxford Movement followers advocated the Gothic as the ultimate architectural expression of Christian ideals. Its major proponent was the architect Augustus Pugin, who greatly influenced Tyntesfield’s designer John Norton (1823–1904).