The Cotswolds - Snowshill Manor

                       

Snowshill Manor is a sixteenth-century country house, best known for its twentieth-century owner, Charles Paget Wade, an eccentric who amassed an enormous collection of objects that interested him. He was of Afro-Caribbean descent.

            

                                 

Snowshill is a typical Cotswold manor house, made from local stone; the main part of the house dates from the 16th century. The estate also includes a brewhouse, dovecote, garden buildings, and a group of four Manor Cottages.

Wade bought Snowshill is 1919. He was an architect, artist-craftsman, collector, poet and heir to the family fortune. He restored the property, living in the small cottage in the garden while using the Manor house as a home for his collection of objects. His motto was "Let nothing perish". 

By the time of his death he had amassed over 22,000 objects.

As explained to us by one of the guides, Wade was hugely wealthy and bought much of his collection from the upper class in England who were going through financial problems.

The collection includes toys, Samurai armour, musical instruments, and clocks. Wade’s enormous and eclectic collection of objects reflected his interest in craftsmanship. The objects in the collection include 26 suits of Japanese samurai armour dating from the 17th and 19th centuries, bicycles, toys, musical instruments, and more.

I asked the guide if Wade had a particular fascination with Japan and had travelled there many times given the size of the Samurai armour collection, but he said that Wade had never travelled to Japan. His collection was all bought in England.

Wade was an eccentric man and lived in the Priest's House while housing his collection in the manor. He remained single most of his life but met a kindred spirit, Mary McEwan Graham, when he was in his sixties and she was nearly fifty. It was said to be a happy marriage.

The house is filled with a wide variety of things, whatever struck Wade's fancy

There is a room filled with lots of different vehicles, including child sized

This is an animated doorbell as explained by the guide. When someone rang at the front door the people in the box became animated, walking down the street.

A room full of spinning wheels

And another room with toys

                                                                        A baby's bouncy chair!

Musical Instruments

I'd love to know what this one sounds like

There was lots more. Each room filled with more things to look at and wonder over. 

Wade never lived in the main house. He only used it to display his collections. He actually lived in an out building

The garden was beautiful, set up almost like different rooms and in one of the out buildings -- a carved and decorated carriage

It was such an interesting house