In 1919, architect Charles Paget Wade bought Snowshill Manor, a 16th-century house tucked into the hillside below the trail. Over the next three decades, he filled its 20 rooms with over 22,000 objects — Japanese samurai armour, bicycles, toys, musical instruments, clocks, and tools. His motto was 'Let nothing perish.' What makes Snowshill truly eccentric is that Wade never lived in the house. He slept in a small cottage next door, leaving every room for his collection. He arranged objects by theme rather than period, creating immersive rooms with names like 'Zenith' and 'Admiral.' Wade's childhood fascination with collecting began at age seven, when his grandmother in Great Yarmouth allowed him to open her lacquered cabinet of curiosities every Sunday. He trained as an architect and designed houses in Hampstead Garden Suburb before inheriting enough money to pursue collecting full-time. Virginia Woolf and J.B. Priestley visited. In 1951, Wade donated the manor to the National Trust on the condition it remain open to the public. It is one of the most unusual properties the Trust manages — 95 per cent of Wade's oriental and Italian treasures were found in England.
“' Wade's childhood fascination with collecting began at age seven, when his grandmother in Great Yarmouth allowed him to open her lacquered cabinet of curiosities every Sunday.”
