After a wonderful night in our Royal Crescent suite (living the high life now) we planned to head off to Chavenage House. Instead we had a Covid fire drill. One of the women had tested positive for Covid which required us all to take the rapid tests where two more people had positive results. Those of us Covid free continued on with the day a little behind schedule and a little out of sorts but still dedicated to continuing on.

Chavenage House was the first stop of the day and has been one of my favorite stops on the tour. We started with tea and cookies in the great room with an introduction of the house. The current home owner and his uncle were our tour guides. The house was built in 1576 and was used for the family home in Poldark (for those that watch that PBS series.)

The highlight were the bedrooms with full tapestry wall coverings. The tapestries had been in the room since the 16th century and were made for the room. The owner said they were removed to be cleaned by the V&A Museum and he said they had to come out to visit the house before they would let them be rehung. They had to make sure the house was suitable place for them. (He said having hung there for 400 years should have been good enough evidence that the room had suitable conditions.) The tapestries in one room were said to be the style of the Americas which made them more valuable to the V&A. Basically they were various woods or tropical plant scenes. It was an interpretation of what they thought America would look like. The other room had different scenes one of a knight and one Roman scene. There was also a spot behind the bed that was missing the tapestry for centuries but was recently found wrapped around a pipe in the basement. It has been returned to its spot you can see that it is brighter.

The American tapestry room was once used by Oliver Cromwell during the English civil war. At that time the owner of the house was a member of Parliament and Cromwell was seeking his support in removing Charles I from the throne. After multiple visits he agreed to sign the death warrant for the king but luckily for the family he died within days of agreeing and did not sign the document. So the family held the estate through the Restoration of Charles II. However the families luck eventually failed when they Chavenage as collateral for the restoration of their family seat in Ireland. Unable to pay back the loan the neighboring landowner took over the house and sold it to one of his friends, the current owners great grandfather several times removed.

The house also had a chapel and some other art that was was defaced during Edward VI reign. There were carved muses in the music room whose heads were removed only to be reattached or new ones added at a later date after all that craziness was over. The faces now Pete out at odd angles.

More recently they found a carrying case full of all the original designs for Windsor Palace in their attic. They couldn’t come up with a connection of how they got in their attic but he said they made a lot of money off them. They were auctioned at Sotheby’s and without saying who bought them it was definitely the queen. He said they also loaned the ones they had kept to help with restoration after the fire in the 90s.

He also told personal stories about growing up in the house and how they used it today. He was by far the best tour guide we have had. I think it has something to do with the personal connection and the passion you have for your home.

After Chavenage we stopped in Tetbury for lunch. It was a cute little town and after a quick lunch Val and I walked around and shopped.

From lunch we headed back to Bath to tour the Royal portrait exhibition at the Holburne Museum. We had seen some of these paintings in the Royal Portrait Gallery in London on our last trip but it was nice to see them again in an exhibit that was set up in a timeline.

Dinner tonight was at an Italian restaurant Ravello in Nicola’s hometown. It was a lovely night for drinks on the rooftop over looking the city. Dinner was delicious and Tracy Bornean joined the tour and gave a great talk on Thomas Cromwell to finish out our evening. What started out as a frantic day finished quite well.