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Chavenage's
owner Nathaniel Stephens, a relative of Oliver Cromwell, became Parliament's
member for Gloucestershire.
Although
he was one of the less radical members of the Roundhead faction,
he was leaned on by Cromwell during a visit to Chavenage to vote
for the support, arrest and trial of Charles I, and persuaded to
state in Parliament that the best cure for a sick plant might be
"by cutting off its head".
Nathaniel's
daughter was horrified at what her father had consented to and predicted
a curse on the family.
Sure
enough, he was struck down by a fatal illness. At the moment he
died a spectral black coach and horses driven by a headless coachman
drew up at the entrance, the coach door opened and the ghost of
Nathaniel, dressed in his shroud, left the house, climbed aboard
and was driven away.
It
is said that every owner who has since died at Chavenage has departed
in the same dramatically spooky fashion.
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Chavenage
is stepped in history and has a spoky Civil War tale
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The
room where Cromwell slept has witnessed several ghostly happenings
- one visitor was so terrified she packed her bags and fled, walking
the seven miles to Kemble Station in the middle of the night, though
she refused to say exactly wehat she had seen.
The
room was exorcised at the instigation of the present owner's grandmother
but some visitors still notice an ice-cold chill and get goosebumps
there.
Other
weird occurrences at Chavenage include a 'grey lady' seen by the
lady-in-waiting of Queen Victoria's grand-daughter Princess Marie-Louise,
a heavy wooden bed that is mysteriously lifted off its legs, and
a ghostly monk seen in the chapel.
And
when the galleried main hall was used as a living room, the family
dogs frequently became restless, looked up and watched something
unseen cross the room.
Visitor
information: Chavenage is open to the public May to September,
Thursdays and Sundays, bank holiday Mondays and Easter Sunday and
Easter Monday, 2pm-5pm.
Tel: 01666 502329.
Website:
If
YOU have had a close encounter with a Gloucestershire apparition,
we want to hear about it! Just click on the link below to tell us
your spinetingling tale.
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