Mysteries My Walls Enfold

Built from Cotswold stone, the main part of Snowshill manor dates from the C16th, but its history goes back farther than that. The estate was given to Winchcombe Abbey in 821 by King Coenwulf of Mercia, and was listed as such in the Domesday book 264 years later. It remained part of the Abbey until Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, and Snowshill Manor was given to Catherine Parr, his last wife. 

Over the years it had several owners and was extended and developed to what we see now. Its last and most notable owner was the gifted eccentric, Charles Paget Wade, who I’d never heard of before visiting the house.

Young Charles Paget Wade  

Creator:  | Credit: Artwork Copyright: National Trust, Snowshill Manor; Photo Cred

Wade was a respected artist, a superb craftsman and obsessive collector, motivated by his motto ‘Let nothing go to waste. The result was a 22000 collection of objects that in some way appealed to him, all of them crammed into the manor - leaving no room in the house for him or his wife to live. He resided in the so called ‘Priest’s House’ adjacent to the manor, his wife preferred the local inn, and both decamped to the West Indies .where his family had owned a sugar plantation, and from where much of his wealth originated. 

A bit gloomy perhaps, but I would quite like to have lived in the original Tudor part of the house.

But gradually the collection grew and grew. Below is only a fraction of what I could have shown, but each photo I found worth studying at home. You absorb an atmosphere in the house but appreciate the detail later in more leisurely surroundings. 

Old Charles Paget Wade

For Wade, beauty and craftsmanship was everything, as too was setting. He eschewed electricity for its harshness. His vast hoard was lit by oil lamps and candle light. 

Snowshill Manor soon attracted interest. Queen Mary was entranced, as was J B Priestly and Virginia Woolf, even perhaps the Great Beast himself, Aleister Crowley, for there was another side to Charles Paget Wade – an intense interest in the occult. 

This chest was inadvertently closed some years ago and no one now can unlock it. If you look below AND at the lid of an open chest in Wade's bedroom shown farther down, you'll appreciate the fiendish complexity of a C17th lock

Wade had a propensity for dressing up in armour and playing peek-a-boo with guests.

Did I say Wade collected everything?

Wade was a master craftsman. This, believe it or not is a doorbell. The figures moved to music when someone knocked at the front door. No one now can get it to work.

Hidden away in the attic is a hidden space named ‘The Witch’s Garret.’ The present owner of the house – the National Trust—were so horrified, they have since done their best to deny its existence. It seems it may once have hosted an active coven, and that Aleister Crowley may well have attended.

Its occult and satanic paraphernalia  is presently housed  in the Witchcraft Museum in Boscamon, Cornwall. All that remains now is a room painted with sinister symbols, a room the Trust pretends isn’t there.

The attic is now crammed with bikes and every form of wheeled vehicle. Just below is a real bone shaker. The twine leading from handlebars to back wheel is the brake!

just to the right out of picture was an innocent looking cot until you approached it. For some reason it gave me the shivers as though something truly bad had happened in it. This was before I knew about the 'witch's room.' 

What they don’t deny though are the various hauntings. Whilst Wade was renovating the manor, a workman housed in the attic left the day after and refused to come back. Perhaps it was the ‘Benedictine Ghost’, the 16 year old thwarted bride in the green dress, the monks that haunt the adjacent lane, or the victim of a dual to the death that occurred in one of its rooms. 

In the words of a short poem written by Wade about the manor: 

Old am I, so very old,

Here centuries have been.

Mysteries my walls enfold,

None know deeds I have seen.'

A relief to step into gardens and sunlight

The Priest house where Wade ended up living. Still a bit cluttered you might think but more liveable than the mansion that housed his collection. 

His fire and cosy covered chair. There was no electricity in the house but to keep abreast during World War II he relented and bought a battery powered radio

Where he ate.

And slept.

His bathroom and toilet - notice the hat from the portrait above

And apologies for the surfeit of photos and for all that I didn't show.

For those who would like a glimpse of his costume collection housed elsewhere click here