Chavenage House
Originally built in 1383, there have been additions and renovations to the property over the centuries. Since Tudor times, only two families have owned Chavenage, the current owner David Lowsley-Williams having inherited the house from his uncle in 1958.
The main historical interest centres on the English Civil War, when the house was owned by the MP for Gloucestershire. He was persuaded against his better judgement to vote for Charles I’s impeachment and subsequent execution. Soon after the King was beheaded, Col. Stephens died and it is said that his ghostly form was seen leaving Chavenage in a carriage driven by a headless coachman wearing the Royal vestments.
These days, the property is very much a family home and even though it is open to the public on a part-time basis. Chavenage has been used as a film/TV location on many occasions and was has recently been seen as Styles Court in Agatha Christie’s Poirot story ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’; as Candleford Manor in the BBC’s ‘Lark Rise to Candleford’, scenes from the high acclaimed ‘Wolf Hall’ and the house now stars as Trenwith House is the hugely popular ‘Poldark’.