Trip to Bures St Mary
On the 5th August CAG visited two of the most historic buildings in Bures St Mary – Bevills and St. Stephens Chapel.
Bevills was built around 1490 by the first Sir William Waldegrave for his eldest son George, and the house remained in the hands of the Waldegrave family until they left the area in the early eighteenth century. It was sympathetically extended around 1920 by Colonel W. Probert and is listed G2* -Pevsner describes the house as “spectacular”. By kind permission of the owner we will see the principal downstairs rooms, as well as the gardens and outbuildings.
Geoffrey Probert and family gave an excellent tour of the House and grounds, followed by the Chapel. The chapel was consecrated on the Feast of St. Stephen, December 26th 1218 , by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, on the site where King Edmund was believed to have been crowned in AD 855. Sacked during the reformation, the building spent the next 400 years as a barn. Restored in the 1930s, the chapel now houses medieval tomb-chests of three members of the de Vere family, Earls of Oxford, moved here 
from Earl’s Colne Priory.
The surprise of the day was the Dragon etched into the side of the hill opposite the Chapel.
Our thanks to John for all the work organizing this popular trip (which went like clockwork) and to the Probert family for their hospitality.