Photos Copyright: Maggie May
In my last post I had an interesting comment from Merry Weather because she had taken the time to visit my link about the Gibb's Family, who had founded Tyntesfield. She said that the stately home had been founded by bird poo! She was right. All the Gibbs' money had come from seagull poo, known locally as guano, imported from South America and all of the estate grounds were fertilised with it.
It makes a change finding a wealthy family whose money hadn't been made from the slave trade. Bird Poo is so much more acceptable and I like that idea very much. They used natural resources and were very much *greener* than we would have imagined.
You can see that the Camelias are still thriving! I took photos of other coloured Camelias but noticed that most of them had Audrey's thumb next to the bloom because she did insist on holding the flower head in the right position for me. You might remember from my last post that I went to Tyntesfield with my friend, Audrey and my son, Sam.
This must have been a very busy courtyard at one time
and to the left of this photo there was quite a sturdy but small rusted cage against a wall. I wonder what type of creature was cooped up in that unhappy environment? The Victorians were not noted for their kindness to wild animals. I imagine it to be some kind of exotic cat or a bear or possibly a chimpanzee.
I couldn't find a reference to this cage in any of the literature that was provided by the National Trust who own the estate now. Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo of it.
Was this the way to a possible dungeon, I wonder? Well, I wasn't going down there to find out. However, it does look dank and dark.
These articles were left in what must have been the servants' quarters. That boiler was obviously used for washing the clothes. My mother had a slightly more modern one when I was a child.
I love taking photos through little hidey-holes like this one in the picture below.
Hope you enjoyed another taste of Tyntesfield Estate.
