The National Trust, helped by a record grant of £17.5 million from the
National Heritage Memorial Fund, acquired it, and has since been engaged in
a programme of painstaking renovation.

Last year 225,000 visitors were able to look around this strange, romantic and
slightly spooky place above the Yeo valley, but, as the Trust cheerfully
admits, the real saviours of Tyntsfield are its volunteer helpers.

“There is an incredible amount to do, to keep a place like this running,” says
Angela Russell, the estate’s general manager.

“Right from the start we’ve had fantastic support from the public, first in
raising the money to buy the house (almost 80,000 people contributed £8
million in 50 days), then in coming here in such numbers to help out.

“People don’t just give us their time, but their expertise. Time and
again we’ve had a worry, and the volunteers have solved it for us.”

On a typical day there are around 60 volunteers working on the estate. Many
come from the surrounding area, and grew up with tales of Tyntesfield and
its treasures. Others arrive from all over the country, drawn by the chance
to be part of such a prestigious project.

“I came to look at it when it first opened,” says Mike Holson, a 68-year-old
retired printer from nearby Clevedon, who now drives a courtesy bus around
the grounds.

“I got chatting to a bloke who was digging beds for rosemary bushes, and he
gave me the idea that I could help out, too. I spent 50 years of my life
working in a factory.

“Being part of this is like a dream for me. I do one day a week and spend
the other six waiting to get back here. You can’t describe the satisfaction.
It’s the pleasure of being among smiling faces.”

The original 2,400 acre estate has been gradually pared back to a more
manageable 500, but the grounds, including the Gibbs’ cherished formal
gardens, still take plenty of looking after.

“There’s always something to do,” says Ginny Young, 54, a volunteer outdoor
ranger from Stroud.

“Walling, footpaths, fenceposts – you name it, we do it.” A former BBC
secretary, Ginny opted to volunteer after taking a horticultural course. “I
realised that I loved this kind of thing – being among plants and open
spaces, so now I come every Wednesday, and it’s wonderful to see this place
thriving.”

Not everyone at Tyntesfield fits the same wholesome profile. Raking up foliage
on a grassy bank is 15-year-old Fraser, a young offender from
Weston-super-Mare, who has opted to come here as part of a community
rehabilitation programme sponsored by Somerset County Council.

Fraser has been in trouble for years, but says he’s sure the stint here will
help him to straighten himself out. “It’s been really good for me,” he says.
“I’ve learned a lot, and they’re really good people.”

Yet there’s more to the volunteering ethic at Tyntesfield – and in the dozens
of similar places that depend on amateur labour – than the simple wish to
help out in a good cause. For many volunteers, the quid quo pro is that they
gain valuable work experience and learn skills than can help in other
fields. “We get an incredibly wide range of people of people coming here,”
says Liz Jones, the estate’s Volunteering Manager.

“Some want qualifications for their CVs, some want to learn new craft or
management skills, we get corporate volunteers, who have jobs but want to
experience different ways of working. We get students, retired people,
mothers who have given up work, but want to do something interesting.
Everybody, really. The National Trust absolutely depends of these people.”

If Tyntesfield looks like a riot of over-the-top Gothic Revival from the
outside, the splendours of its interiors are simply breathtaking. The
sailors bringing the guano cargoes back from South America used to sing
“Mister Gibbs made his dibs/ Selling the turds of foreign birds,” but the
unglamorous nature of the business shouldn’t detract from the fact that it
paid for some of the finest rooms created in Victorian England.

Inside one of them is volunteer Francesca Hollow, a 22-year-old recent
graduate from Exeter University who has so far cleaned and catalogued 109
antique rugs and carpets, many of them unique to the house. “I was looking
for something to do and saw an advertisement,” she says. “So came here on a
temporary placement, and absolutely loved it. One carpet took me 70 hours to
clean. You don’t just run a vacuum cleaner over it. Then I was offered a
job, and I’m amazed at the amount of responsibility I’ve been given. I’ve
organised an exhibition of textiles.”

Down the corridor, dressed as a 19th century housekeeper, is guide Margaret
Flux, 75, a widow from Clevedon who works here most weekends. “I love the
Victorian period,” she says. “I love this house, I love meeting the people.
I love the whole thing.”

Earlier this month, Tyntesfield received its one millionth visitor. The
volunteers held a celebration, but it didn’t keep them away from work for
long. There were still a million things to do.

How to enter the Sunday Telegraph/ Waitrose British
Volunteer Awards