Today was our first rainy day of the trip – around 18 degrees and overcast all day. We again had a more relaxed start and headed off at 10am for a National Trust property: Snowshill Manor and Garden, located about 25 minutes to the northwest. This delightful medieval manor was last owned by the eccentric aristocrat Charles Wade just after World War I. He had a passion for collecting and restoring interesting objects, and indeed he filled this entire manor with his collection, whilst he lived alone in a nearby cottage.

His collection included toys, samurai armour, musical instruments, fine clocks, dozens of bicycles, antique furniture, paintings…. The list was endless and we wandered through the various rooms of his manor marvelling at the contents and even the architecture of the house itself (Charles Wade enjoyed engineering and often removed the lath and plaster around the ceiling to expose the rough wooden beams).

The garden was also impressive and we could just imagine Charles sitting in his cottage staring out the window at the magnificent views of garden and distant countryside. The British National Trust do cater for kids fairly well and there were a number of kid friendly bits to the garden, which Oscar especially enjoyed exploring.

The weather was fairly wet, but we had decked ourselves in raincoats and so we were able to walk through the gardens to the house and back without issue.


We then moved on to our final National Trust property which had just closed when we tried to visit yesterday: Chastleton House between Morton In Marsh and Chipping Norton. The great House, dating back to 1607 and containing some 40+ rooms, was built as a statement of wealth and power by a prosperous wool merchant in the early reign of King James I. A fine example of the Jacobean style, the house quickly fell into disrepair, as the generations of families could not bear to sell, but likewise could not afford the upkeep. As the last owner remarked “Poverty is a great preserver”.

The house remained unchanged in 400 years, and the National Trust took the unusual approach of conservation rather than restoration. The last widowed owner managed to live out of two rooms with only a multitude of cats for company, until she died in the 1990s!

One of the more interesting features of the property was a small “hidden room” off a bedroom, where the lady of the house hid her husband from the pursuit of soldiers from the battle of Worcester in 1651. She then laced the soldiers’ beer with laudanum and whilst they slumbered, her husband escaped on horseback.

The house also contains a huge Long Gallery on the third floor, some 22 meters in length with a high barrel vaulted ceiling. No other gallery of such length or age has survived. The Gallery was used for displaying artwork, and playing games and walking when it was wet.

The kids were given a back pack on arrival containing a torch, binoculars and a list of items to find, which kept them well occupied. We didn’t get much of a chance to explore the grounds due to the weather, as by then the rain has pretty much set in.