Thread by @todbooklady

@mutley7781 @StroudStory @Portaspeciosa @SlCathy @CarolineIrwin3 @JudyADoherty @PosyHill1 @chartres_Fiona @StrayRambler @Horatioforever Wade is generally known for being wealthy & eccentric, but he trained as an architect and worked under Unwin at Hampstead GS from his RIBA qualification in 1907 until 1914, after which he served in France through WWI. 1/

@mutley7781 @StroudStory @Portaspeciosa @SlCathy @CarolineIrwin3 @JudyADoherty @PosyHill1 @chartres_Fiona @StrayRambler @Horatioforever Having come into his inheritance in 1911, he did not return to practice after the war, instead choosing the life of a dilettante and collector. He bought the Snowshill estate in 1919 & restored the Manor House to his own taste, using it as a repository for his growing collection.

@mutley7781 @StroudStory @Portaspeciosa @SlCathy @CarolineIrwin3 @JudyADoherty @PosyHill1 @chartres_Fiona @StrayRambler @Horatioforever Wade had worked with Baillie Scott at Hampstead, and turned to him in 1920 for help in designing his garden. This proved to be a lengthy project, not being completed until 1923.

@mutley7781 @StroudStory @Portaspeciosa @SlCathy @CarolineIrwin3 @JudyADoherty @PosyHill1 @chartres_Fiona @StrayRambler @Horatioforever Despite his reputation as an eccentric and dilettante, Wade was meticulous in his work, with a keen eye for detail and exacted standards. He was also immensely talented, both as an architect and an illustrator. His draughtsmanship was held at being second to none.

@mutley7781 @StroudStory @Portaspeciosa @SlCathy @CarolineIrwin3 @JudyADoherty @PosyHill1 @chartres_Fiona @StrayRambler @Horatioforever When Raymond Unwin published his seminal volume 'Town Planning in Practice' in 1909, he called upon his young assistants to illustrate the work, acknowledging in his preface to the 2nd Edition "Mr. Wade's charming and imaginative pictures".

@mutley7781 @StroudStory @Portaspeciosa @SlCathy @CarolineIrwin3 @JudyADoherty @PosyHill1 @chartres_Fiona @StrayRambler @Horatioforever He also created good architecture. Mervyn Miller, expert on Garden Cities, describes Wade's eye for detail and thoughtful approach to materials. He worked on several important schemes: terraces at Asmuns Place "with their bold tile-creased arches over the central ginnel", Cont/

@mutley7781 @StroudStory @Portaspeciosa @SlCathy @CarolineIrwin3 @JudyADoherty @PosyHill1 @chartres_Fiona @StrayRambler @Horatioforever ... "the picturesque clubhouse on Willifield Green, with its tall Germanic tower, & the Great Wall, (dividing the) Suburb from the Heath Extension, studded with picturesque pavilions & gazebos".

@mutley7781 @StroudStory @Portaspeciosa @SlCathy @CarolineIrwin3 @JudyADoherty @PosyHill1 @chartres_Fiona @StrayRambler @Horatioforever In Miller's words, Wade created "a private utopia" at Snowshill, where his collection of crafted & other artefacts eventually numbered over 22,000 items. At the age of 60 he made a late marriage; thereafter they spent increasing periods of time at their house in the West Indies.

@mutley7781 @StroudStory @Portaspeciosa @SlCathy @CarolineIrwin3 @JudyADoherty @PosyHill1 @chartres_Fiona @StrayRambler @Horatioforever The house came with Wade's business interests in the several West Indies sugar plantations he had inherited from his father. Eventually he parted with his Cotswold "private utopia", finding (presumably) the St. Kitts version more to his taste as he aged.

@mutley7781 @StroudStory @Portaspeciosa @SlCathy @CarolineIrwin3 @JudyADoherty @PosyHill1 @chartres_Fiona @StrayRambler @Horatioforever Snowshill was given to the National Trust in 1951. Wade died in 1956 while visiting England, so that he now lies with his family in the churchyard at St. Barnabas, at the centre of the village, which was where this long thread all began...

@mutley7781 @StroudStory @Portaspeciosa @SlCathy @CarolineIrwin3 @JudyADoherty @PosyHill1 @chartres_Fiona @StrayRambler @Horatioforever I was surprised - unreasonably, really - by two aspects of Wade's life: that he owned (or part-owned) West Indian sugar plantations, & that he fought in WWI. How hard it is to imagine the playful, eccentric Wade, with his need for flamboyant self-expression, in that Hell on earth