Tyntesfield Estate in licence blunder

An historic National Trust property in North Somerset has been operating without planning permission for three years after an "embarrassing oversight" by staff.

Tyntesfield Estate in Wraxall was bought by the trust in 2002 and opened to the public on a series of temporary licences.

But the licence which enables the house to be run as a public attraction expired in 2009 - which the trust has only just realised.

Officials have now hastily applied for retrospective planning permission from North Somerset Council.

Allan King, a spokesman for the Trust, said:

Tyntesfield takes its name from the Tynte baronets who owned estates in the region throughout the 1500s.

A former hunting lodge, it was used as a farmhouse until the 1830s when the mansion was built.

It remained in the family of English businessman William Gibbs, who purchased the house upon its completion, until being taken over by the National Trust in 2002.

The purchase was made possible by a £17.4million grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, its largest to date at the time.