A ROOM used by a former owner during the First World War has been recreated by National Trust staff.

Charles Wade's Orderly Room in France will be created at Snowshill Manor near Broadway, where Mr Wade formerly owned.

Fran Roberts, conservation assistant at Snowshill Manor, said: "The Orderly room installation can be found in the courtyard to the side of the Manor, in a cellar which was, up until now, inaccessible to visitors.

"Previously it was used to store some old bikes and an ancient and very heavy old fire engine.

"It's been brilliant to see this room come together - sharing an important story in Snowshill Manor's history - the moment Charles Wade formed the idea of buying and saving the manor - a little-known fact.

"He was the Orderly Room clerk and made the space something of a refuge from the horrors around him.

"So visitors will see the walls lined with sandbag hessian, maps with neat edging as well as a 'pleasing cover' for his bunk.

"They will also see the drawings he did to soothe the trauma of his situation. It's quite something."

Conscripted to serve in 1916, Mr Wade, who later bought and transformed Snowshill Manor, was called up as a sapper in the Royal Engineers in 1917.

Unsuited to army life and seeing devastation all around, he turned to the painting and drawing that he had enjoyed since childhood, as a way of escaping the awful sights of war.

Ruined landscapes were depicted as whole again and he created scenes of fantasy gardens.

Assigned the duties of Orderly Room clerk, he dressed and decorated his accommodation to recall the comforts of home.

On his return home after the war, he found the manor was for sale and in 1919 he was able to buy it.

The new National Trust installation shines a light on a little-known part of his past.

The new room will remain in this guise until 2018.

For more information, visit http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/snowshillmanor