Snowshill Manor, Cotswolds Pt 6

Thanks to everyone who answered my last post

I had thought that many were celebrating Harvest time

I was just keen to know the origins of this house decorating

And yes I agree the Christmas lights on the whole are very pretty

I personally like the all white displays

As I mentioned in my post on Snowshill Village, the main interest in that area is Snowshill Manor and gardens. Snowshill Manor was owned by the Abbey of Winchcombe (see Winchcombe post), until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. Since then it has had many owners and tenants. The main part of the house dates from 1500 but there have been many alterations and additions over the years. By 1919 the manor was a semi-derelict farm, when it was bought and restored by architect Charles Paget Wade as an ideal place to display his planned collection of craftsmanship. Wade gave the manor and its contents to the National Trust in 1951.

Charles Wade inherited a sugar plantation in the West Indies and this enabled him to devote his life to amassing a collection of over 22,000 items. He had so much stuff in the house he actually lived in the gardener’s cottage next door. However he did use the manor to entertain his friends, including John Betjeman, Graham Greene, J.B. Priestley and Virginia Woolf.

I enjoyed the gardens which are set out as a series of ‘rooms’ and I thought the house was fascinating. Nooks and crannies, corridors and stairs led in all directions and on to different levels. However to me the rest of it was nothing more than a collection of stuff. I much prefer to see these places looking like they looked when lived in. I know I was in the minority as most people gasped at the collections. One thing that did interest me was the Priest’s house. That had been left more or less as it was when he was resident there. I managed 3 photos through the bars which you will see at the end of this post.

This was a chapel within the priest's home

I guess this in an overflow from the house