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THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE SNOWSHILL MANOR
To start the New Year, our media horticulturalist, Camilla Bassett-Smith, highlights a special Gloucestershire garden with a centenary celebration.
Mention snow and a shiver is certain, but the welcome at the National Trust’s Snowshill Manor is as warm as you could imagine. I honestly can’t praise enough their attention to customer care.
The Manor of Snowshill has its roots as far back as 821 AD when it was gifted to Winchcombe Abbey by the King of Mercia, with the earliest surviving parts of the current house dating to around 1550. It is, however, its 20th century life that really ensured that this destination stands out from the Cotswolds crowd.
In 1919 (a year after my Grandfather had been born a few miles away in Taddington), a gentleman named Charles Wade purchased the house and grounds. Charles was a collector, an architect by profession, who during his lifetime made it his business to amass a plethora of skilfully made beautiful objects with which to decorate his home. J B Priestly noted that he had never seen such a collection outside a public museum!
However, housing this growing collection of curiosities wasn’t his only ambition; the neglected land was on course for a mighty makeover. Where nettles and sloping grassland lay, soon terracing and a series of walls to create outdoor rooms were in place. Charles called these ‘courts’ and made use of local materials and craftsmen, very much in keeping with the Arts & Crafts movement of the time.
Today, as was his intention, not everything becomes apparent at once, you are taken on a mystery tour from one area to the next via stone steps, through yew alleyways, under archways and around corners. Light and shade was important to Wade, and the sunshine on the day of my visit highlighted certain areas like the best of bronzers, while others hid in the secretive shadows.
On leaving The Priest’s House (where Wade had his living quarters) you pass a large statue of George & the Dragon, ornate and full of courage in this home where fear of being different
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THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE CAMI L LA BAS S E T T - SMI TH
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