Snowshill, Model Cornish Village
Snowshill ( The Cotswolds, England) is no ordinary manor, as Charles Paget Wade was no ordinary Edwardian gentleman. Mr Wade embodied his family motto 'Let nothing perish', spending his life and inherited wealth amassing a spectacular collection of everyday and extraordinary objects. He bought each because of its colour, craftsmanship and design, restoring the ancient Cotswold manor house to display them. Laid out theatrically, the Manor is literally packed to the rafters with 22,000 or so unusual objects - from tiny toys to splendid suits of Samurai armour. The Manor is surrounded by an intriguing terraced hillside garden designed in the Arts & Crafts style.
Rewind several decades and Snowshill was home to an immaculate model village, which is once more being reinstated in the garden.
A team of National Trust staff and volunteers are working on the ambitious project to recreate the miniature delight, which is expected to be complete by 2019.
Modern archaeology
The research-led project began in 2010 and has unearthed lots of remarkable photos about the original model village, inspiration behind the 21st-century incarnation.
National Trust Archaeologist Nancy Grace said: "Snowshill's lost village, called Wolf’s Cove, is being excavated and completely reconstructed based on documents and archaeological evidence.
"Quirky and true to Snowshill’s spirit of place, Wolf’s Cove was a model village with canals, harbour and railway created and developed into the 1930s and then removed in the 1970s."
The project hit a milestone in 2014/15 with the creation of the quay.
A work in progress
Once complete, Wolf's Cove will include a fully operational railway and canal system as well as a myriad of winding streets full of houses and other tiny buildings as well as figurines. It is being installed in phases, with the pool, quayside and breakwater already in place.
Snowshill, Model Cornish Village
Snowshill ( The Cotswolds, England) is no ordinary manor, as Charles Paget Wade was no ordinary Edwardian gentleman. Mr Wade embodied his family motto 'Let nothing perish', spending his life and inherited wealth amassing a spectacular collection of everyday and extraordinary objects. He bought each because of its colour, craftsmanship and design, restoring the ancient Cotswold manor house to display them. Laid out theatrically, the Manor is literally packed to the rafters with 22,000 or so unusual objects - from tiny toys to splendid suits of Samurai armour. The Manor is surrounded by an intriguing terraced hillside garden designed in the Arts & Crafts style.
Rewind several decades and Snowshill was home to an immaculate model village, which is once more being reinstated in the garden.
A team of National Trust staff and volunteers are working on the ambitious project to recreate the miniature delight, which is expected to be complete by 2019.
Modern archaeology
The research-led project began in 2010 and has unearthed lots of remarkable photos about the original model village, inspiration behind the 21st-century incarnation.
National Trust Archaeologist Nancy Grace said: "Snowshill's lost village, called Wolf’s Cove, is being excavated and completely reconstructed based on documents and archaeological evidence.
"Quirky and true to Snowshill’s spirit of place, Wolf’s Cove was a model village with canals, harbour and railway created and developed into the 1930s and then removed in the 1970s."
The project hit a milestone in 2014/15 with the creation of the quay.
A work in progress
Once complete, Wolf's Cove will include a fully operational railway and canal system as well as a myriad of winding streets full of houses and other tiny buildings as well as figurines. It is being installed in phases, with the pool, quayside and breakwater already in place.