Chavenage House

The estate of Chavenage was sold to Edward Stephens of Eastington in Gloucestershire in 1564. He built the house in the Elizabethan style, the then-current early Renaissance architecture, adding large windows to the south of the porch. Much of the glass was obtained from redundant religious buildings such as nearby Horsley Priory, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries a generation earlier. On Edward's death in 1587, the estate passed to his son, Richard Stephens of Eastington. On Richard's death in 1599, the estate passed to his son Nathaniel Stephens, then only ten years old. When the Civil War tore the country apart in the 1640s, Stephens and Chavenage were Parliamentarians or…

The house is an Elizabethan house and is a Grade I listed building. It was built originally in 1576 by Edward Stephens. It has an E-shaped plan with a porch at the centre of the east side. It is constructed of rubble stone with a stone slate roof and has two storeys and attics. It was enlarged in the 17th century and further extended in the 18th century by the Rev Richard Stephens, then again at the start of the 20th century. As these additions are in keeping with the original style and materials, they appear as one consistent building and the new areas are not obvious. David Verey and Alan Brooks, in their first volume of the Pevsner Architectural Guide to the county, describe Chavenage as…