Sponsor Tyntesfield

THE National Trust is marking its fifth year of owning Tyntesfield with a special drive asking people to sponsor an item from the house.Staff at the Gothic mansion, who are still cataloguing the amazing collection, estimate there are 40,000 items telling the story of the Gibbs family life through four generations.These range from fine china and wonderful furnishings to the more bizarre - a wooden frog cigarette holder, a boa snake skin, an ivory casket or a rare example of a centrally heated billiard table with electrically operated scoreboard.Each item in the collection is available to be sponsored.Tyntesfield fund-raising manager Lyndsey Jones said: "The scale of the project here is huge and although we have been very successful in ensuring that people have the opportunity to get involved with the project at Tyntesfield, there is still an enormous amount left to do."Through the inventory sponsorship scheme we want to offer the opportunity for people to become personally involved with a specific part of Tyntesfield and to feel that they were making a difference in a very tangible way."All funds that we raise through this new scheme will help us in the next phase of the work we need to do at Tyntesfield, in particular, helping us set up a fund to support the conservation and care of the artefacts."Four levels of sponsorship have been devised to allow people to sponsor an object for a year for as little as £5.Each level of sponsorship will be recognised from a personal sponsorship certificate to spending time with the inventory team behind the scenes.The National Trust bought Tyntesfield in 2002 and so far 350,000 people have visited the sprawling Gothic mansion.To find out more either pick up a leaflet at Tyntesfield or call Lyndsey Jones, fund-raising manager on 01275 461962.