The poignant and often harrowing stories of life at a boarding school run by Catholic nuns for boys from disadvantaged backgrounds are being vividly told through an exhibition of childhood “treasures” at the country house where the institution was based.

Men who attended St Joseph’s school for boys, which operated at Croome Court in Worcestershire for three decades, have provided objects loaded with meaning that represent their time there.

The possessions – from an old football to model aircraft and a yo-yo – have been artfully arranged in an intricate case alongside others loaned by young people in care. Memories from those who donated them are written on a wall alongside.

The objects are loaded with meaning for the boys who studied at the school. Photograph: Jack Nelson

Some of the objects, even apparently the most ordinary, tell of dark times at the 18th-century mansion, today a National Trust property. One former pupil, now aged 65, handed over a tub of hair product but his testimony makes clear he did not use it simply to look good.

“My mum would send me Brylcreem in the parcel we were allowed once a month,” he said. “It was hard for her to do but it meant when the nuns tried to grab me by the hair their hands would slide off.”

Another man, now 62, provided a penny for the exhibition. “I don’t understand why my mum never visited,” he said. “I got this penny so she could come on the bus and I wrote down how she could come but she never came.”

A third loaned a thick belt. “This belt means my home and it means my father and it means the end of every day when he would come in drunk and beat me,” his testimony reads.

Former pupil Pete Chlebko, who volunteers at Croome, loaned an Enid Blyton book. “I loved to read these books when I was little,” he said. “My mum used to send them to me when I was in care before I came to Croome but when I got to St Joseph’s I wasn’t allowed to read books like this, and I missed my books.”

Some of the staff who worked at St Joseph’s, which took in six- to 13-year-olds from 1948 to 1978, have been accused of sexual and physical abuse.

Some of the objects tell of dark times at the school, which was run by nuns. Photograph: Jack Nelson

There are no direct references to sexual abuse in the exhibition. The National Trust, which acquired the house in 2007, has worked with some of the men for more than a decade and said it let all the participants give the accounts they wanted to – and sexual abuse was not one of the stories they had told.

The exhibition, What is Home, is not the sort that might usually be expected to be told at a National Trust property with grounds created by Capability Brown, interiors by Robert Adam and stunning views of the Malvern Hills. But it is part of a drive called Croome Redefined, which aims to find creative ways of telling the story of the house and involving the local community.

Nearly 100 objects have been loaned by more than 30 participants, around half former pupils. The case they are housed in was created by the Nottingham-born artist Kashif Nadim Chaudry, who also worked with the participants and a writer to help them tell their stories.

He wanted to make sure that even though many of the possessions speak of dark times, they are seen as precious objects – and are being treated with the same tenderness the National Trust would afford a priceless vase.

Croome Court in Worcestershire is a National Trust property. Photograph: Jack Nelson

The memories from the ex-pupils are not all grim. One loaned a statue of the Virgin Mary and spoke of his time helping the nuns run a pet shop. Another provided a football medal he won, of which he is still proud.

Two striking objects from a 15-year-old currently in care were a Chicken McNuggets box and a greetings card. “After my mum left me, I would bring this card from her to go into Worcester and buy nuggets,” said the teenager. “They are warm and safe and always the same, and you can rely on them.”

Rachel Sharpe, the National Trust’s creative partnerships manager at Croome, said the exhibition served as a reminder that it was not just the aristocracy who lived at the mansion.

“This project is about giving those people a voice. Nadim has collected and curated these extraordinary and poignant testimonies through expertly crafted workshops and conversations, which have resulted in a thought-provoking artwork.”