Built / Designed For: Sir John Wright

House & Family History: Kelvedon's dining room and drawing room were redecorated in the Adam style circa 1775. The house was purchased in the early 20th century by Sir Henry Channon and his wife, Lady Honor Guinness, eldest daughter of the 2nd Earl of Iveagh. Sir Henry, nicknamed "Chips," was a wealthy Anglo-American Conservative politician and social and political climber. In July 1939 Channon met the landscape designer Peter Daniel Coats, with whom he began an affair that led to the dissolution of Channon's marriage in 1945. His famous diaries (only partly published, and then in expurgated form) are known for their sharp wit and spiteful comments. Channon's biographer in the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" notes that Elliot Templeton in W. Somerset Maugham's novel "The Razor's Edge" (1944) and the disappointed schoolmaster Crocker-Harris in Terence Rattigan's play "The Browning Version" (1948) were partly inspired by Channon. Chips's only child, Paul Channon, a past minister for the arts, currently owns Kelvedon.

John Bernard (J.B.) Burke, published under the title of A Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland, among other titles: Vol. II, p. 85, 1853.

Country Life: LXXXIX, 386, 408, 1941.

House Listed: Grade I

Park Listed: Not Listed

Past Seat / Home of: Sir John Wright, 16th century; Wright family here until 1822. Sir Henry "Chips" Channon, until 1958; Paul Channon, 1958-2007.

Current Ownership Type: Individual / Family Trust

Primary Current Ownership Use: Private Home

House Open to Public: No

Historic Houses Member: No