Tyntesfield

Tyntesfield is a great Victorian estate that the National Trust saved in 2002 after a public appeal. The Gothic Revival house, bristling with turrets, looks east over its gardens towards Backwell Hill, and the property now covers around 150 acres of house, kitchen garden and park near Wraxall, a short drive from Bristol. It is a place to see how a wealthy Victorian family ran a country estate, from the grounds by the house to the productive garden that helped feed it.

Walk from the house through the gardens to the kitchen garden, one of the core parts of the estate the Trust bought. The Gibbs family once had a huge ironwork conservatory behind the house, until it was taken down in 1917 and its metal melted for the war effort, which gives a sense of how ambitious the gardens once were. Look out too for the Home Farm buildings of the 1880s, now the visitor centre, and the chapel modelled on the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

Kitchen gardeners will find most to take home, as a garden of this scale shows how a large estate grew its own produce. The parkland suits a longer walk, and because restoration has continued room by room since 2002 there is often something new to see in the house as well. Allow a full day if you want both the house and the grounds, and start at Home Farm to get your bearings.