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While a number of more famous artists have lived in Henfield over the years, the Wade family have left us a wonderful legacy of rural scenes in the English landscape tradition, many now long lost in the modern day village.
Solicitor Charles Aubrey Wade and his wife Sarah were both born in Bedfordshire, but settled and had a large family in Henfield where they settled into village life. Charles had Croft House in the High Street built from locally handmade Partridge Green bricks, the building also becoming premises for a branch of the Brighton Union Bank. By the time Charles arrived in the 1870s, he was an avid painter of watercolours and encouraged several of his seven children towards painting. Together they have left us a legacy of well over 100 watercolours and sketches, painted from the 1870s to 1900s, some featured in the gallery below. Many of the watercolours are contained within two Wade family albums donated to the museum. Having recently been digitised, these digital images are now in the process of gradual restoration, some of the paintings having sadly been damaged by damp over the past century and a quarter. As this project progresses, we hope to offer a selection for sale as greeting cards and prints. A selection of restored images are displayed in the galleries below. Brother and sister Armigel and Audrey Wade were also instrumental in the founding of Henfield's Scout troop - the oldest still in existence. 
Croft House Garden, Audrey Wade and Muriel Garbett c.1900.
Colourised, 2020
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The Wade family in the late 1880s: Sarah, Charles with children Charles, Armigel, Alec, Audrey (Daisy), Cecil & Walter. Print restored and colourised 2020
Audrey 'Daisy' Wade, (1883-1969). Photo enhanced, 2020
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The Wade Watercolour Galleries
Further paintings are gradually being digitally restored - please check back in the future for additions.
Gallery 1 - Views of Henfield
Gallery 2 - Coastal Views & Further Afield
All images on this page are licensed for educational and non commercial use under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) . Please credit 'Henfield Museum' and contact us if you would like to use an image for commercial purposes or at a higher quality.