house and estate of of farmland, of woodlands, plus 30 houses and cottages, were listed for sale by Savills in three main lots (total estimated at £15 million); with Christie's contracted to secure the sale of the house and estate contents via a separate auction (total estimated at a further £15 million). Having not bought a county house since the 1991 purchase of Chastleton House, which took seven years to open to the public, and competing with no special status amongst the bidders, the rumoured competitors to the Trust were listed by the media to have included composer Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, and pop stars Madonna and Kylie Minogue. However, the new Director-General of the National Trust, Fiona Reynolds, launched a £35 million appeal in May 2002 via the "Save Tyntesfield" campaign, with support from designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, newsreader Jon Snow and several top architects and historians. The Trust's appeal collected £8.2 million in just 100 days, with: £3 million+ from the public; and two substantial anonymous donations of £1 million and £4 million. The Trust also received funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, totaling £17.4 million after negotiations with its chair, Liz Forgan, its largest single grant ever which caused some controversy. The National Lottery has earmarked a further £25 million for the major conservation work that is needed. As a result of the auction, the former "Tyntesfield Estate" no longer exists. The National Trust purchased only the main central part of the Estate which comprises the house, the kitchen garden, and the park. The trust also sold off additional lands. The resultant preserved house and surrounding gardens sat on a total of of land are now simply known as Tyntesfield. Charlton Farm, is now home to Children's Hospice South West, which provides palliative care to children with terminal illnesses. Charlton House was sold into private hands, having been since 1927 the home of the Downs School. Initial conservation After taking ownership in 2002, National Trust staff secured the house and gardens, preserving them and the contents, and then catalogued the contents of the house which had been collected by the four generations of the family. Starting out with a staff of 30 volunteers, by 2013 the total of employed and volunteer staff exceeded 600, more than the number engaged by any other National Trust property. The initial conservation work focused around weatherproofing the house. The repair of