Charles Wade of Snowshill Manor: personal and estate records
Charles Paget Wade (Shortlands 1883 - Evesham 1956)
Category
Archive Collections
Date
circa 1890 - circa 1956
Materials
Collection
Snowshill Manor and Garden, Gloucestershire
NT 1342628
Summary
Charles Wade of Snowshill Manor: personal and estate records. Gloucestershire Archives D10423. Personal correspondence and other papers of C. P. Wade, including correspondence with Mrs Amy B. Wade, Miss M.C. (Connie) Wade, Miss Olive Wade and personal correspondence of Mrs Mary Graham Wade; financial records; bills and receipts relating to the Snowshill collection; papers relating to travel 1940s-1960s; papers relating to poetry written by Charles Wade and poetry written by Mary Graham Wade; historical notes; notebooks and sketch books; papers relating to Snowshill Manor and the collection; business records of St Kitts estate and plantation; papers relating to F.P. Hart 1896-1940; papers relating to H.R. Waiting 1932-1947. Charles Paget Wade purchased Snowshill Manor near Broadway in 1919 to display his growing collection of objects demonstrating what he regarded as the "essentials of design, colour and craftsmanship", ideas closely related to those of the Arts and Crafts movement. The National Trust was given the Manor and Gardens in 1951 and has managed the property ever since in order that the public might see and appreciate what Wade had achieved. By the time of his death in 1956, Wade had acquired more than 20,000 objects, ranging from an ancient Egyptian alabaster pot to different types of clocks, from ornate inlaid cabinets to wagons, from Samurai armour to early velocipedes as well as 2,250 pieces of 18th and 19th century apparel and much more besides. He could afford all of this because of the plantations and other businesses he had inherited in the West Indies, especially the island of St. Kitts. His personal motto was "let nothing perish" and, in keeping with this, he kept many thousands of documents. Many of these have been deposited in Gloucestershire Archives, although some key papers were subsequently returned to Snowshill and others, specifically related to his mother's ancestors (the Bulwer family), were transferred to Norfolk Archives. The papers now held at Gloucestershire Archives include correspondence, information on Wade's personal and business finances, bills and receipts for his purchases, theatre programmes, postcards, Christmas cards and travel documents, as well as notebooks and sketch books; in addition there papers from his mother, his sisters, his wife and some of his friends, especially F. P. Hart, for whom more than 100 documents cover his naval career from 1896 to 1940. They were listed in detail by Snowshill National Trust volunteers during 2014 and Gloucestershire Archives are extremely grateful to them for their support. Deposited by the National Trust, 7 November 2005 and 14 March 2006.
Provenance
Given to the National Trust with Snowshill Manor in 1951 by Charles Paget Wade (1883 - 1956)
Makers and roles
Charles Paget Wade (Shortlands 1883 - Evesham 1956), creator